


Every Day's a School Day

by SerenBex



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-02
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-04-17 14:04:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 45,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14190594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerenBex/pseuds/SerenBex
Summary: Becoming the source of staff room gossip is literally Rosa's worst nightmare. The less her colleagues know about her life the better.But when she finally gives in and falls for Gina, she's determined to keep things just between themselves. But will their strange little family at Brooklyn Primary become more important than they imagined?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the primary school teachers AU that literally no one asked for. I couldn't shake the idea from my head until I wrote it, though.
> 
> It's based on the Welsh education system (because that is what I do and all I know).
> 
> Rosa and Gina basically own my life now.
> 
> I apologise for the shitty title - it's literally the hardest part of fic writing for me.

“It’s _literally_ too early for this shit.” Rosa ground out. She was sitting in the staffroom with her boots up on the table and a scowl on her face.

“Yeah, well, some of us were here yesterday for the training day.” Jake reminded her, earning himself a dismissive shrug in response.

“Where were you?” Amy asked interestedly, settling herself in the seat across from the other woman and wrapping her hands around her cup of tea.

“None of your damn business.”

“But–”

“None of your damn business.” Rosa repeated, arching an eyebrow at her and putting her empty coffee mug down with more force than necessary.

Terry looked up at the sound of china on wood. “She does have a point, though, Rosa. It was a mandatory inset day.”

“We had training on the new maths scheme. It was incredibly in depth and informative. I think it’s going to be great.” Amy enthused, pulling an information pack out of one of her bags and sliding it across the surface of the table towards her colleague. “I can’t wait to start using it with my class.”

“You teach four-year-olds,” Rosa reminded her, “so you’ll just be teaching them not to shit themselves for the first term.”

Jake laughed, reaching out to high five the woman, who barely acknowledged the movement. At the clapping sound their hands made, Amy pouted and tugged the maths scheme booklet back towards herself, slipping it protectively into her bag out of sight.

“We also took the new staff photos to update the board in the reception area.” Terry continued. “You weren’t here, so we used last year’s… which is actually the same photo of you that we’ve been using since you started here.”

Rosa nodded sharply. “Good.”

“I wore the new tie Genevieve bought me on our trip to visit some of the Boyle cousins.” Charles chipped in, beaming at them all. “She thinks it really brings out my eyes. I’m not sure because–”

“Good morning.” The deep voice of the headmaster preceded the man himself into the staff room. As usual, Gina trailed along in his wake, her phone clutched in her hands and her eyes glued to the screen. “New term, new start, same expectations. We need to build on last year’s impressive results. I have every faith that Jake and Terry can hit the ambitious end of Key Stage figures that County are demanding for this year.”

“It is pretty ambitious.” Gina nodded, not even glancing up from her phone. “80% level five in year six and 60% outcome 6 in year two. Good luck guys; I'm not holding out much hope.” 

Everyone made sounds that indicated how likely they though it was that either of the targets would be met. Rosa smirked at Jake and he sent her an offended look in return. Terry put his head in his hands, muttering something about unrealistic expectations and the likelihood of bettering last year’s results when they were slashing the budget.

“When I arrived here, you were nicknamed the nine-nine because of where you’d stood in the county league tables for a long time. A _long_ time.” Holt reminded them, looking around at his staff. “Through your hard work and dedication we’ve risen steadily over the last few years. You should all be very proud of yourselves… I am.”

“Nine-nine!” Jake exclaimed enthusiastically, receiving a chorus of ‘nine-nine’s in return.

“Oh… make sure I have all topic webs and medium term plans by Friday, please.” The headmaster added as he left the room.

As Gina flounced after him, no doubt intending to sit in the office and completely ignore the phone if it rang, the teachers made the most of their few remaining moments before the first bell of the year sounded and chaos entered their lives once more. 

“Looks like I’ll be spending the most time with your class this year, Rosa.” Charles announced, looking far too happy about that information. “I’ve got six intervention groups from year 3 and 4 to do.”

“Great.” 

“Did you receive the timetable I emailed last week?”

“No.”

“Oh.” He smiled, completely unfazed by her bluntness. “That’s OK. I’ll print out a copy and get it to you by break time.”

Not answering him, she merely jerked her head in the approximation of a nod and stood up to make another cup of coffee before heading to her classroom. Somehow, no one was quite sure of the reason, Rosa had managed to claim the classroom next to the staffroom, even though it was at the infant end of the school. They were pretty sure it was because she'd terrified their last head teacher and Holt just hadn't seen the need to move things around. It meant that she simply had to walk out of the door, take two steps and she was outside her own classroom. 

“Hey, Peralta!” She called, seeing Jake heading towards the year 1 and 2 classroom. “If any of the dummies you’ve sent up to me this year can’t read or write…” 

“Did you not hear the Captain?” He asked, referring to Holt. “Last year’s results were impressive, Rosa. You’re welcome.”

Making a noise in her throat, rather than answering properly, Rosa pushed open her classroom door and stepped inside. She dumped her backpack beside her desk, booted up the laptop and scrawled the date across the board before dropping down in her chair and resting her feet on the surface beside the computer. Logging into the system as the morning bell rang shrilly, the woman rolled her eyes at the first sounds of her class arriving and putting their things on pegs in the cloakroom. 

“Come in, sit down and shut up.” She ordered as the first few children began to enter the room.

“I got you a bracelet from my holiday, Ms Diaz.” One of the year 4 girls who’d been in her class the year before announced, beaming at her and holding out the offering proudly.

“It’s great. I love it.” Rosa told her indifferently, holding out her hand so she could slip the pink beaded band onto her wrist. “Thank you, Leah.”

More children filed in, some bringing her presents and others presenting her with pictures they’d drawn or postcards from places they’d visited. Rosa treated each with the upmost gratitude, difficult when she was showing absolutely no emotion in her tone or facial expressions, displaying them on her desk or the noticeboard behind her.

Gina strutted into the room between playtime and lunch with some forms that Rosa needed to sign. She bowed and waved at the children as she entered, causing their teacher to roll her eyes and lean back in her seat with her arms crossed over her chest. As Gina broke into some, admittedly impressive, dance moves, Rosa huffed loudly.

“Every damn time, Linetti?” 

Pretending to be shocked, Gina put her hand on her chest. “In front of the children, Diaz?”

“They’ve heard worse. Probably.”

“Hey, Elliot?”

The eight-year-old looked up at the sound of his name. “Yeah, Ms Linetti?”

“Is your dad still single?”

“Ummm…?" 

“OK, that’s enough, Gina.” Rosa frowned at her, before standing and stepping forward to indicate that she would physically remove her from the room if necessary.

On the threshold, the secretary pirouetted on the spot to wink and blow her a kiss, before heading away in the vague direction of the reception. Rosa watched her leave, telling herself that she was checking that Gina was really gone before closing the door and returning to her class.

“Sorry about that, Elliot.” Rosa apologised quickly, before shrugging. “Your dad’s pretty hot, though, so you should probably get used to it.”

* * *

The first half term flew by and before they knew it their week off was fast approaching. The staff were all looking forward to their holiday, each claiming that they needed it more than the others.

Terry was eager to spend the time with his girls; he didn’t get to see them often enough during term time because – despite the fact that the twins were in Amy’s reception class – they were nearly always in bed by the time he got home and his weekends were regularly taken up with work. Jake was planning a romantic getaway with his latest girlfriend, although Rosa and Gina were convinced that he had just invented her to make Amy jealous, while Charles had been trying to find out where the younger man was planning on going for weeks. Amy had booked herself onto several courses and was looking forward to finally having the time to read the teaching pedagogy book Holt had recommended during one staff meeting. Gina had several shows booked with her dance troop and no one had any idea what Rosa might be doing with her days off, let alone with whom she might be doing it. 

Before they could escape, however, they had one final hoop to jump through. The PTA had organised a Halloween disco for the children and Holt had announced that the staff were required to attend. In fact, they weren’t just required to attend, they were also expected to dress up and get into the spirit of the event.

“This sucks.” Rosa announced, folding her arms and leaning against the wall of the hall where the party was taking place.

“It does.” Gina agreed, lounging beside her, her phone in her hand as always.

“You do realise you can’t put photos of this onto your social media?” Her friend asked. “There’s a bunch of legal and child protection issues heading your way if you do.”

“I know that, girl.” Gina replied, rolling her eyes. “Why would I want to take photos of a bunch of stupid kids, anyway? I’m much more interested in a black cat costume that has obviously been thrown together with the least dedication to detail I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Rosa felt a blush rising in her cheeks at her words, forcing a scowl to twist her features. She was about to retort with something scathing in order to dispel her embarrassment somewhat, when she spotted one of her class heading towards them. 

“Do you want to dance, Ms Diaz?” He asked, nervously pushing his hands into his pockets and doing his best not to meet her eyes.

“That’s… nice, Jack, but no. Thank you.” She said. “I think Tilly might want to. Go over there.”

“Oh… sweet.”

Watching him making a beeline for the blonde seven-year-old standing beside the drinks table, Rosa reached up and removed her headband; receiving a paper cut from one of the cardboard triangles she’d made Amy glue onto it to represent cat ears. That was the only part of her costume that she hadn’t been wearing all day and therefore the pivotal item in making her look any different from normal. Gina chuckled as she reached out, plucking it from her hands and placing it on her own head. Immediately she raised her phone and snapped several selfies.

“Wanna get out of here?”

“Can’t.” Rosa replied bluntly. “Holt said we have to stay ‘til the end.”

Gina sighed dramatically. “Yeah, but… wanna get out of here? This party is terrible.”

“It’s a party for children.”

“Yeah, but still… there isn’t even a decent beat, boo. How do they expect the tiny people to dance to this?”

“They don’t seem to have a problem with it.”

“They don’t know any better.” Gina announced, looking pained. “They need to be educated… and this is a school!”

“Hey… are Amy and Jake dancing?” Rosa asked, a smirk on her face as she pointed out the two infant teachers on the other side of the hall.

“O-M-G.” Gina enunciated, her hand gripping her friend’s forearm almost painfully tightly. “Eww… Seriously? What is happening right now?” 

“You can’t take photos of that.” Rosa said, hooking the phone out of her hand. “Child protection issues, remember?”

A noise of immense frustration was ripped from Gina’s throat as she realised that Rosa was right. “No! Why do the worst things always happen to the best people?” 

“OK, let’s leave.”

“I thought you said Holt told you to stay?” 

“What’s he gonna do? Sack me?” Rosa asked, her eyebrow rising slightly as she stared at her friend. “I’m the best teacher here. Everyone’s terrified of me. Including the parents.”

With a gleeful giggle, Gina all but skipped out of the hall in the direction of the office to pick up her stuff. Rosa headed for her classroom at a much more leisurely pace. Doing a final sweep of the room, muttering threats as she realised that her students had left behind several jumpers and water bottles, she shouldered her bag of books to mark over the holiday and picked up her motorbike helmet. 

Gina was already waiting outside when she switched off the lights and closed the door. Rosa thought it was a little weird, as she now had to double back and walk through reception again to get out of the building, but she said nothing. The auburn-haired woman chattered all the way out to the car park, apparently unperturbed by the fact that her friend was completely ignoring everything she was saying. 

“Shaw’s?” Rosa suggested, stowing her books securely in the box on the back of her bike and turning to look at Gina who had her nose buried in her phone.

“Yeah, I haven’t got my car so you’re gonna have to take me.”

Rolling her eyes, having expected nothing less, Rosa held out her spare helmet and climbed onto the bike. Waiting for Gina to settle behind her, her arms wrapped much tighter than she thought was necessary around her waist. The way the other woman was pressed against her so tightly was very distracting and Rosa had to force herself to keep her mind on the road as they headed towards the pub.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, fun fact... I was once told by my head that the parents found my bluntness intimidating and that I should probably not do that anymore. I had to sit through 10 minutes of her demonstrating different ways of putting things. It was not fun.
> 
> I imagine my level of intimidation would be nothing to Rosa's.
> 
> Hope you enjoy chapter 2 :)

Most of the staff were filled with pent up energy on the morning of parents’ evening. Even Jake turned up earlier than usual and his colleagues were amused to see him actually wearing a tie for once. After several comments and questions over his unnatural smartness, the bell rang and with a final warning to make sure none of his class strangled him before break, Rosa made her way to her classroom to terrify some children into learning their spellings.

“Your first appointment is at 3:40.” Gina told Rosa, leaning over her desk and fixing her with a piercing stare. “I wasn’t sure whether you’d want Elliot’s single dad or Sarah’s single mom last, so I put Mr Price at 4:20 with a twenty minute break until the next appointment and Ms Evans last.”

On the opposite side of the desk, Rosa rolled her eyes and exhaled sharply. “Great, thanks for that, Gina.”

“What! I don't know which one you’d rather–”

“Ms Diaz? Can I change my reading book please?” Ella asked, appearing between the two women without any warning. They both turned sharply to look at her, Gina letting out a small, dramatic scream that was totally unnecessary. “I’ve finished this one.”

“Yeah, sure… whatever, kid. Try and get one out of the right box this time, yeah?”

When Rosa looked up, Gina was already sashaying out of the room, sending her a wink over her shoulder as she went. Realising that the noise levels had risen while she’d been distracted, the woman called her class’ attention back to her and directed them towards the visual timetable. There was clearly another five minutes of silent reading time before the lunch bell rang and she was damned if they were going to ruin that for her.

By the time she’d rounded up the last of the stragglers and directed them towards the hall for lunch, Rosa was the last one into the staffroom. She pointedly avoided Amy who was scribbling something – which turned out to be a crib sheet of the main points she wanted to discuss with each set of parents that afternoon – and dropped into one of the comfy seats, putting her feet up on the coffee table.

Jake and Charles seemed to be composing some kind of song about the upcoming parents’ evening, while Terry was chatting to Holt about some policy or other. Gina appeared, dropping down beside Rosa with a thermos of coffee in one hand and her phone in the other. Snatching the cup from her, Rosa took a long sip, wincing at the amount of sugar that the other woman must have added. 

“You owe me.”

“For what, boo?” Gina demanded, not the slightest bit concerned.

“Distracting me and giving my class the opportunity to chat.” She said the last word with distaste, washing it down with another gulp of over-sweetened coffee.

“It was important.” The secretary whined. “I wanted you to know that there was logic behind the scheduling choices. I just want you to be happy, Ro-Ro!”

“I am. I have a boyfriend. You can leave my life alone, now.”

Gina’s mouth dropped open. “What?” She demanded, elongating the word almost painfully. “Since when? You have to tell me _everything_.”

“Gina, I need the safeguarding policy.” Holt announced, interrupting at just the right moment to save Rosa’s embarrassment from reaching new heights. “Ms Diaz.”

“Mr Holt.” She nodded at him.

The brunette could feel Gina’s eyes boring into the side of her head like lasers and knew that the other woman could tell that something strange had just happened.

“I hope you’re all set for parents evening.”

“Of course.”

“Good.” He hesitated for a moment and then nodded. “Hmm. Gina?”

As he left the room with Gina, Rosa suddenly realised that she was alone apart from Terry and Charles. They were watching her seriously and, as she was just making the decision to retreat to the safety of her classroom, they approached.

“So… Holt’s asked us to talk to you.” The deputy head started the conversation, earning himself a snort from Rosa who didn’t even bother to remove her boots from the surface of the table in the staff room.

“Why?”

“Parents’ evening.” Terry replied, a worried expression blossoming across his face. When Rosa failed to react, he sighed. “Holt feels that you need a crash course in parents’ evening etiquette." 

“Why?” She repeated, glancing between the deputy head and Charles, who was bobbing up and down beside him nervously.

“Some of the parents have expressed… concern… about meeting with you.”

Rosa’s feet dropped heavily to the floor and she leant forward, her elbows occupying the recently vacated space and her eyebrows knitting together in a scowl. “They what?”

“Yeah, I think this is why.” Terry replied with a shrug, trying not to show how unsettled he was by her hostility. “You need to be more approachable, Diaz.”

“The parents are coming to hear how well their children are doing and see what they can do at home to help their education.” Charles told her, apparently in what he thought was a soothing tone. “They don’t expect to be physically threatened if they don’t read with them at home.”

“Do those losers not realise that there’s evidence to suggest that reading for as little as 20 minutes a day will put them in the 90thpercentile? That by the age of eleven they’ll have been exposed to around 1.8 million words?” Rosa demanded in an expressionless voice. “Not reading with them is just dumb.”

“You make very good points, Rosa,” Terry agreed, clasping his hands in front of him, “but we really need to work on your delivery.”

“Fine, I’ll listen to your dumbass suggestions.” She muttered irritably.

Charles beamed at her, drawing up a chair and settling himself in it. “That’s the spirit!”

“Get on with it, then.”

“All you need is for the parents to like you.” Charles continued. “If they like you, they’ll listen to what you have to say.”

“Fine. How do I get these morons to like me?” She paused as the two men simply stared back at her. “Don’t call them morons.”

“Good instincts!” Terry congratulated her, causing Rosa to roll her eyes at his enthusiasm.

Charles stood up and moved closer to her. “OK… sit up straight, be aware of your hands… don’t be afraid to smile. If you need to say something negative, always balance it with, ‘they’ve always got something interesting to add to class’." 

“They’ve always got something interesting to add to class…” Rosa repeated thoughtfully. “I like that.”

“And always make good eye contact.” Terry added seriously.

“But don’t stare at people.”

“Yeah, you’ve got to blink." 

“But don’t blink too much.” 

“Or too fast.”

“I think the bigger worry is slow blinking.” 

Terry nodded. “Don’t blink too fast or too slow or too much or too little.”

“I know how to blink!” Rosa snapped, scowling between them.

“OK, OK! Let’s take a break.” The deputy head held up his hands. “Parents’ evening wardrobe.”

“What’s wrong with the way I dress?” She demanded, narrowing her eyes threateningly.

“You know… some people might say that all the black sort of makes you look like an evil villain.” Charles replied nervously. He swallowed as Rosa stood and took a single step towards him. “Not me… I think you look like a sexy motorcycle.”

“Boyle, pull it together.” Terry ordered, looking exasperated. “We need to soften up your look. My wife and Charles’ mom donated some clothes.”

They produced several jumpers, cardigans, blouses and scarves and showed them to her proudly. Rosa’s eyebrow rose at the mishmash of patterns and colours – mostly pastel – that greeted her.

“Your wife and Charles’ mom are both blind?” She asked scathingly.

After several outfit changes and arguments – clothing vetoed and discarded by both sides – they finally settled on a pale blue shirt and a grey suit jacket. It was enough of a compromise that Terry and Charles felt they’d won, but not anywhere near as uncomfortable for Rosa as she’d thought it would be.

“That’s great!”

“Perfect! You look beautiful…ly appropriate for parents’ evening.” Charles announced, catching himself at Terry’s hand on his shoulder and Rosa’s scowl.

She huffed, glancing at the time. “I’ve gotta get back to class… lunch will be over soon and the little monsters are always excitable on PE afternoon. I’ll put these on later.”

The rest of the afternoon passed much more quickly than Rosa had hoped and before she knew it the end of school bell was ringing and she was ushering her class out to their parents. Wrinkling her nose, she grabbed the shirt and jacket and headed towards the disabled toilet near Holt’s office that she and Gina had unofficially commandeered as their own private bathroom.

The first parents were already waiting when she arrived back in the room, so she forced a smile onto her face and suggested that they take a look at their child’s books before they spoke. The couple looked a little concerned by the grin she was sending them and, as soon as they looked down, it fell from her face and she scowled.

“So, Ms Diaz, how’s Carl doing?”

“He… he’s always got something interesting to add to class.” Rosa informed them emotionlessly. “He’d be a half-decent student if he just stopped–”

Out of the corner of her eyes she spotted Charles and Terry in the corridor outside her classroom, watching her and motioning to their faces. She froze, trying to work out what they were signalling, one of her eyes starting to twitch as she became conscious of how often she was blinking.

Carl’s parents stared at her with evident alarm as she rushed through the rest of their meeting. She struggled to keep her cool, giving them a thoroughly insightful rundown of their little darling’s behaviour when he was in school, before bundling them out of the classroom in a hurry and stomping towards her colleagues with a furious scowl on her face. The problem was, now she was so aware of her blinking and whether she was smiling or not that she couldn’t stop doing either.

“Great advice, dummies, I look like a psycho in there.” Rosa snapped as soon as she was standing in front of her colleagues out in the hallway.

Terry nodded and smiled at a couple of parents milling around, trying to distract them from the furious teacher, before pulling her into the staffroom. Rosa folded her arms and kicked the recycling bin, sending scraps of paper fluttering across the floor.

“Yes, you have to pull it together.” Charles advised.

“That’s not helping!”

“It’s what Terry says to me when I’m nervous.” He blinked, as though something had only just occurred to him. “Rosa… I think you’re nervous.”

“Of course I’m nervous!” She replied irritably. “What did you think was the problem?”

“We just assumed you were a terrifying human being with a short fuse.” The deputy head replied with a shrug.

“Well if the problem is that you’re nervous, that’s where Charles Boyle lives, baby! I can help. You just need to go to your happy place.”

“What’s that? Sounds stupid.”

“Well everyone’s happy place is different. For me I just imagine I’m slurping up the world’s longest piece of linguine. It just keeps going and going; every twenty feet of noodle, there’s a sauce change.” He told her, a dreamy, faraway look entering his eyes. “I’m in my happy place right now. Mmmm… pesto… mmm… carbonara…”

“Great!” Rosa snapped, throwing up her hands and storming towards the door. “Now I’m starving!”

“Ms Diaz?”

“Yeah?” She frowned at the couple that was waiting outside her door, taking a couple of moments to recognise them. “Fin’s parents? You’re up.”

She struggled through the first part of the meeting until, when Fin’s father demanded to know why she hadn’t done something about his son getting less than five out of ten in his last six spelling tests, Rosa finally realised what Boyle had meant about going to his happy place. 

As she calmly explained that it was down to the students to learn the spellings they were set at home, her eyes glazed over and a soft smile crossed her face. She made it through the next few parents’ evenings more calmly than she ever had before. If the parents she’d spoken to were concerned about the sudden change in their children’s teacher no one said anything. In fact, most of them went away with relieved expressions on their faces.

“Rosa!” Charles beamed as she walked into the staff room with her bag slung over her shoulder to retrieve her helmet.

“Well done, Ms Diaz.” Terry nodded at her proudly. “You did it! I overheard Nathan’s dad saying he’d never left a parents’ evening with you without feeling terrified before.”

“So, where’s your happy place?”

As Rosa described an unnecessarily bloodthirsty scene including some of the more annoying parents she’d seen that evening meeting their demise through various accidents involving incredibly creative uses of stationary and office equipment, her colleagues pulled equally concerned faces. The most unnerving part was the serene smile that crossed Rosa’s face as she talked. 

“Yeah, OK… I’m gonna go ahead and schedule you for a psych eval.” Terry told her seriously as she finished, hurriedly making his way back to his own classroom. 

One they were alone, Rosa smiled at Charles. “I owe you one, Boyle. Thank you dinner, tomorrow night, Gribaldi’s. It’s all-you-can-eat linguini.” She told him, already heading through the door. “Oh, and my boyfriend’s coming too.” 

“Your what-friend, now?” Boyle called after her.

Rosa didn’t answer, but a smile twisted her lips as she stalked away towards reception where she guessed Gina would be hiding. Even though the secretary didn’t have to be at the school for parents’ evening, what with it being outside her contracted hours, Rosa knew that her friend liked to hang around and give the impression that everything would fall apart without her there.

“Hey, Gina, wanna drink?”

“M’kay. This place is boring anyway.” She agreed at once, gathering her things. “So what’s been going on with you? I distinctly heard several parents informing me that tonight’s parents’ evening was far less terrifying than ever before. When I say informing me… I obviously mean I overheard because I don’t talk to those basic bitches.”

“Holt said I needed to be more approachable.” 

“What does he know?”

“Probably more than you, Linetti.”

“Well that’s rude.” Gina reply easily, not in the least offended. “I liked you the way you were before.”

“I, however, am proud of you for following the advice you were given.” Holt said, appearing as though from nowhere and nodding seriously at the women. “Good job, Rosa.” 

“Thanks.” She nodded, the ghost of a smile twisting the corner of her lips, before she got her features under control once more.

“See you tomorrow.”

The two women stood together, watching the headmaster striding over to his car. Then Gina nudged Rosa with her shoulder, forcing her arm through the other woman’s and dragging her in the direction of her car. When Rosa stared at her questioningly, Gina simply threw back her head and laughed softly.

“It’s my turn to drive. Iggy’s at my mom’s for the night, so let’s get drunk, boo!”

“I thought you were driving?” Rosa pointed out, getting into the passenger’s seat.

“I’m driving there… we can get a cab back. We’re not savages, Ro-Ro.” 

Rosa chuckled, despite herself. “I’m only coming for one, though, dude. I’ve gotta deal with those little monsters in the morning.” The redhead showed her displeasure at her words by blowing a raspberry. “But I also have a favour to ask you.”

“A favour? Really? Are you kidding me? A favour is going to require _at least_ three drinks. Three Drink Gina is much more likely to agree to your request. Four Drink Gina… even more likely.”

Leaning her head against the headrest, Rosa chuckled softly. She didn’t put up much of a fight when Gina ordered four shots for each of them, followed by beers. The brunette seemingly had a much higher tolerance for alcohol than her friend and decided to call them a cab before it got too late, manhandling Gina into the back and giving the driver directions to her house. 

Stopping briefly to make a fuss over her Labrador, Arlo, Rosa nodded her head towards the living room. “Make yourself comfortable. I’ll get you something to wear.” 

Gina nodded, smiling at the softer side of her friend. As soon as the brunette moved away, Arlo padded over to her instead, pushing his head into her lap and looking up at her with chocolate brown eyes. Not usually a fan of dogs, Gina couldn’t deny that he was ridiculously adorable, which explained why Rosa had kept him around after Charles had told her you couldn’t just replace one dog with another.

“Here.” Rosa held out a pair of pyjama bottoms and an old t-shirt in Gina’s direction. “You can borrow these. Bathroom’s through there. My bedroom’s next door.”

As she stumbled in the direction indicated, Rosa quickly went back to her room, changed into her own pyjamas and put her phone on charge, making sure her alarm was set for the morning. When Gina appeared, she was already settled on her usual side of the bed. Needing no encouragement, Gina clambered in beside her and pulled the duvet up under her chin.

“This is way more comfortable than I was expecting.” She mumbled, already half asleep. “I thought you might sleep in a coffin or something.”

“I don’t.” Rosa snorted. “Oh… if Arlo tries to get on the bed, just tell him no.” She reached over and turned off the lamp. “Night.”

“Wait… didn’t you want to ask me a favour?”

“Oh… right.” Staring up at the ceiling as her eyes gradually grew accustomed to the dark, Rosa bit her lip. “I’m having dinner with Boyle tomorrow and I told him my boyfriend would be there.”

“Right, Marcus… Holt’s nephew.” Gina nodded.

“How did you find that out so fast?” Rosa demanded defensively.

“Unimportant… continue.”

Huffing, but not contesting the apparent unimportance of her friend violating her privacy, the brunette got to her request. “We broke up. Me and Marcus.”

“Since you told me about him this morning?” Gina turned onto her side, suddenly wide-awake.

“No… last week. But I didn’t want everyone to know and I don’t want to go to dinner with Boyle alone so… will you come with me?”

“Are you asking me on a date, Ms Diaz?”

“No!” Rosa denied immediately. “Just… asking you to come along so I don’t end up murdering myself or Boyle.”

“But it’s a Friday night… it’s _highly_ unlikely I’m not busy. Have you ever known a Friday night when I, Gina Linetti, the human form of the 100 emoji, doesn’t have plans?” 

“Please, Gina.”

Gina sighed softly, a gentle smile crossing her face. “I’ll think about it. Depends if you make me breakfast or not.”


	3. Chapter 3

When Rosa woke, it took her a couple of moments to remember why the other person in her bed – face down and snoring softly with her hair spread out all across the pillow – was Gina Linetti. Her first thought was to wonder how long it took the other woman to get ready in the morning. Her second thought was that they needed to get up.

“Gina… Gina!”

“I didn’t steal it!” She announced wildly, twisting quickly and pulling herself into a seated position. “Oh… hey, Ro-Ro.”

“We’ve gotta move.” Rosa informed her bluntly. “We need to go via Shaw’s so we can get your car.”

“But did you make me breakfast, though?”

With a sigh, the brunette shrugged. “Pancakes? Ten minutes.”

Gina nodded approvingly, before swinging her legs out of bed and stretching languidly. Rosa caught herself staring, luckily before Gina noticed what she was doing, turning abruptly and stalking out of the bedroom. Her eyes slipped closed for a moment and she shook her head, despairing at herself for letting the other women into her home, let alone making her breakfast. She was clearly going soft.

“So… I called my mom to give us a lift to work.” Gina announced as she appeared in the kitchen fifteen minutes later.

“Is that my shirt?” Rosa demanded, arching an eyebrow.

Plucking at the crimson fabric casually, Gina nodded. “Mmm-hmmm… unsurprisingly it looks good on me, doesn’t it?”

Making a non-committal noise, Rosa busied herself serving up breakfast and dumping two plates unceremoniously on the table, closely followed by two mugs of coffee. Indicating that she was finished with the conversation, the woman took a large, aggressive bite of her pancake.

“So, as I was saying before you were completely distracted by my glorious appearance – something you should probably get under control before we get to work, boo – my mom’ll be here in ten to pick us up.”

“No.”

“Rosa…” Gina whined. “If she doesn’t I won’t see Iggy until tonight and I miss my baby, you know?”

Against her better judgement, Rosa felt herself softening at her words. “Fine. But she’s dropping us off down the road.”

“What are you… twelve?”

Rosa scowled at her and stabbed her pancake viciously. She finished her morning routine in silence, completely ignoring Gina’s oblivious chatter as she locked up and trailed behind the other woman towards Darlene’s car.

Gina’s mom greeted her warmly, much to Rosa’s discomfort, asking her how she was and how work was going. The brunette answered as vaguely as she could manage and slid into the passenger’s seat, leaving Gina to climb into the back and coo over her infant daughter. She would never admit it, but Rosa thought it was adorable.

All too soon they arrived. As per the teacher’s (many) requests, Mrs Linetti had drawn to a halt outside the doctor’s surgery a little further along the road from the school building. Gina had huffed out a half-hearted complaint, but it soon vanished when Rosa promised to take her to Shaw’s to collect her car as soon as school finished.

“Oh, wait…” Gina smacked her palm into her forehead dramatically. “Mom, can you have Iggy again tonight?”

“Sorry, honey, Lynn and I are going to a couples massage class tonight.”

“Ew.” Her daughter pulled a face of total disgust. “Literally did not ask.”

“Technically you did.” Rosa pointed out in a low voice.

“Not helpful, boo.” She sighed deeply. “Looks like you and Charles are going to have the romantic date he’s always dreamed of.”

“Or you could just bring the baby?” The words seemed to have escaped from her mouth before Rosa could think about it or stop them. “I mean… she’s not that bad and Boyle would probably spend most of his time fussing over her.”

“I’m not sure I want that.” Gina informed her bluntly. She looked a surprised that Rosa had even suggested bringing Enigma. If the other woman wasn’t mistaken, Gina looked a little pleased about it. “But if you’re sure you don’t mind her coming…?”

“It’ll be fine.” The brunette informed her gruffly, already halfway out of the car. “Err… thanks for the ride, Mrs Linetti.”

She waited awkwardly on the street while Gina said goodbye to her daughter and her mother, arranging for Enigma to be dropped off at her house after she’d collected her car that afternoon. Folding her arms, Rosa settled herself on the low wall and watched the cars driving past. She ducked her head slightly, glad that she was wearing her sunglasses, when she caught sight of several of her class in the cars that were passing.

“Come on, dum-dum.” She ordered as soon as Gina approached. “I’m on the assembly rota for this morning.”

“But I’m supposed to be speaking to the statement review panel at County Hall this morning so, really, we don’t need to rush at all. I mean, is your need to lead assembly or my need to get out of that awful, awful conversation more important?”

“Can you try and hurry the panel decision on Dean up?” Rosa asked striding towards the main doors of the building and ignoring her friend’s words. “He’s due funding for support and I need that shit.”

“Sheesh…” Gina threw up her hands as Rosa held the main door open for her. “First you want me to save you from Boyle and now you want me to get money for your thick kids to learn stuff! I’m not your saviour, boo.” She paused for effect, her eyes sparkling. “Or am I?”

As she dropped into her wheely chair without breaking eye contact, doing her best to look unperturbed as it rolled a little to the left, Rosa shook her head in fond amusement and zapped herself through into the main part of the building. Glancing at the time, the woman headed for the staff room to grab a coffee before the bell rang.

* * *

The first thing that alerted Jake to the fact that something was different was when he pulled up in the car park and saw Rosa’s bike already parked up in her usual space. Thanks to the many, _many_ covert selfies Gina had sent him the night before he knew that Rosa had been at the pub until late. From past experience, Jake knew that meant that she wouldn’t arrive at school until about five minutes before the morning bell rang. The presence of her bike in the car park with twenty minutes to go before the start of the day meant that something was obviously wrong.

“Ames…” Jake poked his head through the reception teacher’s classroom door and caught her rearranging the tables yet again. “Where’s Rosa?”

“I haven’t seen her.” She paused, looking thoughtful. “Although I did see her bike when I arrived… That’s weird.”

Pointing at her dramatically, he gasped. “Something is definitely very wrong here.”

“She’s probably just in the copier room or talking to Gina or something.”

“Gina!”

As Jake took off down the corridor at a run, Amy decided to follow him at a slightly more leisurely pace. She caught him up outside the main reception; smiling fondly at his bemused face when where was no sign of either Gina or Rosa in the office. Dropping into the chair at the desk thoughtfully, Jake hurriedly caught Amy up with everything he knew about what he was now referring to as ‘the Rosa case’. It was a terrible title, which Amy told him immediately, but he waved her words away impatiently.

“Oh, look!” Amy pointed to the monitor that showed the CCTV feeds. “There they are.”

Jake frowned as he watched Gina and Rosa walking towards the building together. “This is interesting. I think… is Rosa _smiling_?”

“You don’t think…?” Amy turned to him with wide eyes. “Rosa and _Gina_?”

“Rosa and Gina what?” Charles asked, appearing from nowhere with a mug of coffee. He gasped, his eyes going wide as he spotted them on the screen. “Are they smooshing booties?”

“Eww, Charles, why?”

“Oh god,” Amy tapped on the monitor urgently, “they’re almost here.”

At her words, the three of them rushed for the door, not wanting to be caught spying by the two women. They retreated to the staff room to fill Charles in on what they knew and discuss further theories as to why Rosa and Gina had arrived together. Amy suggested that perhaps one had stayed at the other’s house after their night out and they’d got a lift in together. Jake scoffed at that idea, telling her it was ridiculous and that there was clearly something more sinister at play.

“Rosa’s got a boyfriend.”

“Say what?” Jake gaped at Charles, who shrugged.

“She told me yesterday. Rosa invited me out for dinner tonight to thank me for helping with parents’ evening and she said that her boyfriend would be coming with us.”

“Who is it?” Amy demanded, frowning almost petulantly.

“Who’s what? 

“Rosa, hi!” The younger woman squeaked nervously, jumping out of her skin at the sound of the voice from behind her. “We were just talking about… who the new Head of Schools might be. Jake thinks it might be Madeline Wuntch but–”

“Gross.” Rosa grabbed her mug off the side. “That bitch is the worst.”

Stalking out of the staffroom moments later, Rosa left the other three staring after her. For a couple of moments, Jake simply repeated ‘Rosa, Gina, no’ over and over again, until Amy clicked her fingers in front of his face and brought him back to the moment. Deciding to reconvene at morning break, knowing that Rosa was on duty and it was highly unlikely that Gina would grace them with her presence when the brunette wasn’t in the staff room, they all headed back to their own spaces. 

* * *

“Ms Diaz?”

“Yes, Maisie.”

“Were you sitting on the wall by the doctor’s before school?”

“No.”

“Did you come to school with Ms Linetti?”

“No, Dylan.”

“Are you and Ms Linetti friends, Ms Diaz?”

“No, Louise, we are not. I have no friends and I’m good with that.” Rosa replied bluntly, her feet up on her desk as she surveyed her class. “Get on with your work.”

“Ms Diaz is so cool…” Jamie muttered under his breath as he bowed his head and continued working through the textbook page of subtraction problems.

Bowing her head so that her hair dropped over her face and obscured her expression from view, Rosa actually grinned at the compliment. She turned her attention to marking her English books while it was quiet, only looking up as a whispered conversation met her ears. The girls dropped their eyes to their books immediately and Rosa chuckled softly to herself.

“Ms Diaz?”

“What?”

“Ms Linetti’s at the door.” Louise told her, pointing in the direction of the grinning Gina on the other side of the glass. “Your not-friend.”

Narrowing her eyes briefly at the cheeky eight-year-old, who smirked back, Rosa motioned for the secretary to enter. “What d’you want, Ms Linetti?”

“I booked a ta–”

“Keep working. I’ll be out there. I hear everything.”

Rosa bundled Gina out into the hallway and pulled the door closed behind them. Folding her arms, she positioned herself so that she could keep one eye on her class and scowl at her friend at the same time.

“I’ve never been so insulted in my entire life.” Gina proclaimed dramatically.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not true.” Rosa replied bluntly. “So? What were you saying?"

“I phoned Gribaldi’s and booked us a table for tonight. I had to make it early because Iggy gets real cranky if she has to wait for her dinner, a bit like her momma.”

“Fine.”

“So, if you drive me to Shaw’s to get my car straight after school, I’ll go home and primp this already perfect vision in front of you. Then Iggy and I will pick you up at five so that–”

“Wait, what?”

“I’ll drive us both to the restaurant.” Gina shrugged. “Doesn’t make sense for both of us to take our cars.”

“Uhhh…” Rosa’s eyes widened almost comically. “OK?”

“What? No, stop! Don’t be so grateful or I might blush.”

“I… have to go do break duty.” The brunette announced, louder than necessary, turning on her heel and striding back into her classroom.

Her class cheered as she told them to pack up and get ready for playtime ten minutes early. Gina could hear them through the wall and chuckled, shaking her head as she pictured the flustered expression on Rosa’s face at her suggestion. Seeing Charles heading in her direction, Gina whipped out her phone and stalked away to the safety of her office.


	4. Chapter 4

“Well, this is nice.” Charles beamed at his step-sister across the table. “When’s your boyfriend getting here, Rosa?”

“He’s not.” She mumbled, balling her hands into fists. “That’s why Gina’s here instead… with the baby.”

“I just love awkward dinners with you and Rosa so much.” The other woman drawled, resting her chin on her hand and smirking. “I would not have missed this for _anything_. I _live_ for these moments… they are my fuel.”

As Rosa had predicted, Charles spent most of his time cooing over his niece, while Gina did her best to slap him away and the brunette was able to sit back and watch them in amused silence. When the waiter arrived to take their order, Charles engaged him in a twenty-minute lecture on the correct way to lay a table, while the two women did their best to pretend he wasn’t with them. In the end it was Enigma’s hungry, frustrated shriek that drew his attention and gave them a change to order. 

“So, tell me, Chuck,” Gina leant forward, resting her chin on her palm and looking at him intently, “now that Rosa’s boyfriend is a no show, how are you feeling about your chances with the beautiful Ms Diaz?”

“Gina.” Rosa scowled at her. “We’re just friends, right, Boyle?”

“Friends, right!” He nodded vehemently. “Exactly. Why would I want anything else? Rosa’s… Rosa! In fact, I’d go so far as to say I find her physically repulsive. Eurgh! Just… Bleh! No!”

“Too much, Boyle.” The brunette in question informed him darkly. “You could have just reminded Gina about Genevieve.”

“M’kay… but I’m not really buying it.” Gina almost goaded him, a smirk twisting her lips. “Unless…” She let out a theatrical gasp, “are you just here to spy on her and gather information for Jake? Because I _know_ he’s curious but too damn chicken to ask himself.”

“Curious about what?” Charles stammered, suddenly confused and alarmed in equal measures.

“Anything he doesn’t know which, in this case, is Rosa Diaz’s life.”

“Hey, dude, I don’t–”

“Shhhh!” Gina reached over and placed a finger on Rosa’s lips to silence her. “It’s OK… I’ve got this, boo.” She assured her, before turning back to face her step-brother. “Now you listen to me, Charles Boyle. What happened or didn’t happen between Rosa and her boyfriend is Rosa’s business and no one else’s, OK? If she wants to tell you, fine. If not then you gotta leave it. It’s matters of the heart, man. It’s not gossip for the staff room. Come on, Charles, you’re better than that.”

Chancing a glance at Rosa, who was staring at Gina as though seeing her properly for the first time, Charles nodded. “Sorry, Gina. Sorry, Rosa."

“That’s… OK.” Rosa murmured, still looking confused.

“Now I wish I wasn’t driving because I could really do with a bottle of wine about now.” The redhead informed them casually, before turning to her daughter and repositioning the sparkly pink bow in her wispy hair. “Also, if you breathe a word of any of this to Jake or anyone else at work I will chop your testicles off with those stupid blunt scissors Amy has in her class and personally feed them to you. OK?”

Nodding nervously, Charles shifted uncomfortably in his seat and promised to keep all events of the evening to himself. There wasn’t a single doubt in his mind that Gina would follow through with her threat if he broke his promise. He was, however, still curious and a curious Boyle would not be silenced.

“Why did you show up together this morning, though?” He asked slowly. As they both turned to scowl at him, Charles held up his hands defensively. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise.” 

“We had a few drinks and Gina crashed at mine because it was closer to the pub.” Rosa shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”

“You know where she lives?” He breathed, his eyes widening as he glanced at the redhead. “Only Amy has ever been to Rosa’s house before.” 

“Yeah… that was fun.” Rosa nodded, remembering the evening after the summer play two years ago when Amy had crashed on her sofa after a night of heavy drinking. Nine-Drink Amy was hilarious, but also a danger to herself and others. “I moved the next day.” 

Neither of them noticed Gina contemplating her words as Charles stared at the brunette with wide eyes.

Gina smirked as he turned to look at her. “What’s it like?” 

“Nice… Nowhere near as terrifying or cave-like as I was expecting.” Gina shrugged. “Yeah, it was pretty nice.” 

The rest of their evening was also pretty nice. Once Charles had accepted that he did not (and never would) stand a chance with Rosa, he relaxed and was actually pretty good company. Against her better judgement, the brunette realised that she was enjoying herself.

“You wanna stay at ours?” Gina asked as they watched the taillights of Charles’ car leaving the car park.

“Huh?”

“The night is young, Diaz.” Her friend shrugged, leading the way over to her own car with her daughter balanced on her hip. “So, however, is my baby and I need to put her to bed.”

“So…”

Rolling her eyes as she buckled Enigma into her car seat, Gina turned to look at the other woman, closing the door and leaning against it. “I have to shut the door because she’s so smart she understands what I’m saying all the time. I’m worried she’ll start selling my secrets to the press.” 

“Uhh…”

“I got Charles off your back and so now you have to do what I want.” Gina replied simply. “And what I want is for you to hang out with me tonight. I have ice cream, whiskey and Nancy Meyers movies. I _know_ she's your favourite director.” 

Rosa paused, thinking for a moment. “Why?”

Apparently taken aback by the question, Gina simply walked around the car and opened the driver’s seat. Rosa took the hint and climbed in beside her. She placed her hand on the handbrake as Gina turned the key in the ignition; preventing her from doing any more than revving the engine.

“The question stands, Gina. I need to know why. If this is some pity thing–”

“A pity thing?” The redhead looked bemused by her statement. “Why would I pity you?”

“Because… I assumed… me and Marcus…”

“Assuming makes an ass of me and you.” Gina singsonged, finally able to release the handbrake and reverse out of her parking space. “No, boo, I want to hang out with you because we’re friends and I like you. I can imagine this is a new and strange concept to you, but for normal people it’s completely chill. When you like someone you spend time with them. It’s simple.”

“Oh… I… like you too.”

“God, Rosa, don’t make it weird.”

Glancing sideways, the brunette saw the mirth in her eyes and shook her head, leaning back against the seat and smirking. “Fine. Yes, I would like to hang out with you.”

“That’s good because I would have had to kidnap you otherwise. I literally had no intention of driving to your house.”

* * *

Charles stayed true to his word and didn’t tell the others anything that he had been trusted with at dinner. Life at Brooklyn Primary continued as it always had done and Gina and Rosa were barely seen without the other, unless Rosa was teaching. Even then it wasn’t unusual to see the secretary heading in or out of her classroom on some mission or other.

They also spent a lot more time together out of work than they had before and Rosa had even got over her wariness of being left alone with Enigma, quickly making her the toddler’s favourite babysitter.

This realisation, which warmed Gina’s heart more than she ever imagined it would, had happened a couple of weeks after the ‘Charles dinner nightmare scenario as they had termed it. Enigma had developed a heavy cold and was being incredibly clingy. She cried every time her mother tried to put her down and screamed if she dared to leave the room.

To Gina’s amusement, Enigma even refused to go to her father when Milton came to pick her up one Saturday morning. She had simply shrugged at his dejected face, told him her daughter had taste and rearranged for the next weekend instead. Enigma wasn’t even happy about going to her grandmother, but Darlene eventually quietened her down; managing to send Gina a video of her quietly snuffling sleeping daughter.

Rosa’s face had screwed up in concern as Gina opened the door to her, looking absolutely exhausted and apologising for the wailing child in the living room. While the other woman had gone to make them both a coffee, Rosa wandered towards the playpen – where a red-faced, screaming Enigma was banging her tiny hands against the bars in a temper – and scooped her into her arms.

“Hey, little one, what’s the problem?” She cooed softly, stroking the tear-stained cheeks gently. “Why are you giving your mommy such a hard time?”

Gina paused in the doorway with a mug in each hand. She watched Enigma quieten down immediately, one hand fisting into soft, dark curls and the other reaching out curiously to grab Rosa’s nose. The brunette chuckled softly and, if Gina wasn’t very much mistaken, pressed a quick kiss to the hand as it moved down her face and flattened over her mouth. The next thing she knew, Enigma was actually giggling as Rosa pulled a face at her. 

“Are you a witch?” Gina demanded as she made her presence known. “Should I be alarmed? Should I be wrestling my daughter away from you?”

“I’m a teacher, dummy.” Rosa reminded her, rolling her eyes. Gina was sure she was blushing. “I’m literally paid to be good with children.”

“Yes, but this… Iggy is a free spirit. She’s like a whirling tempest. She is a raging storm. She cannot be tamed. And yet… she is giggling at someone who is not _me_. I do not understand what is happening right now.”

“Shut up, Linetti.”

As Rosa made to hand the little girl back to her mother, Gina backed away. “Oh, no. Now I know you can make this happen,” she signalled towards the happy, gurgling baby, “you are never leaving again.”

From then on, they spent even more time together. Sometimes Rosa even brought her planning and marking over to Gina’s house so that she could work around Enigma’s nap schedule. Gina even allowed her to bring Arlo if she was planning to stay over. If anyone else had known about it, they would have thrown words like ‘domestic’ and ‘relationship’ around. Neither Gina nor Rosa had let their thoughts drift in that direction, content to carry on as they were.

* * *

During one staff meeting in mid-November, Terry made an announcement that started a series of events that would drastically change things between the two women. He told his colleagues that he was going to be away for a week on a residential staff wellbeing course and that an agency teacher would be standing in for him. Apparently the man had a good reputation but had been away from teaching for several years, so Terry wanted them to do their best to support him where they could.

No one thought any more about the supply teacher until he turned up in their midst and – quite literally – caused chaos. Adrian Pimento was, in Gina’s words, a certified nightmare. He had absolutely no regard for Holt’s rules about workplace appearance and immediately put himself into Amy’s bad books by breaking both the photocopier and the laminator in a single hour. 

The thing that made Gina hate him, however, was the immediate attraction between him and Rosa that absolutely no one could miss. Anytime they were both in the same area of the school the sexual tension was terrifying and Amy had even taken to walking out of the room when they were both there. Jake swore that he had walked in on them making out in the art cupboard, the DT cupboard _and_ the staff room.

“I don't trust him.” Gina told her oldest friend in a quiet corner of Shaw’s one night after work.

Terry was, thankfully, back where he belonged which meant that Pimento had been returned to the agency and they didn’t have to deal with the drama that he seemingly caused without even realising it. It also meant that they, thankfully, no longer had a front row view of whatever was going on with him and Rosa. 

He hadn’t, though, disappeared from their lives and Gina was really pissed off about it.

“Yeah, you’ve said about a million times.” Jake replied evenly, taking a swig of his beer.

“Why is he hanging around? Does he think that he might be able to get a permanent job? Maybe he’s planning to kill one of you off as his way in?”

 “I think it’s more likely that he actually likes Rosa.”

“No.” Gina shook her head, apparently not thinking that was even an option. “He’s planning something and I am going to work out what it is.” 

“Gina… don’t ruin this for Rosa.” He requested softly. “She’s happy.”

“I’m not ruining anything,” she protested, “I’m saving her. I am saving Rosa from making a terrible, terrible mistake.”

“You’re being selfish.”

“Selfish? _Selfish_? Gina Linetti is the personification of self _less_ ness. I’m like a beautiful, sophisticated saint. I am Mother Teresa with amazing hair. I am the Dalai Lama with–”

“OK, stop.” Jake cut her off, knowing what the manic glint in her eyes meant. “You once told Charles and Amy you didn’t place their stationary orders because you wanted a new chair and didn’t value them as people.”

“I don’t remember that, so it did not happen.”

“Gina, I know you…” He ran a hand through his hair. “Oh god, this is hard. Feelings and stuff. Before Pimento, were you and Rosa…?”

“What?”

“You know… a _thing_.”

“A _thing_?” She blinked at him. “What? Jake, no! Rosa’s my friend. I miss her because I like spending time with her, which I never get to do when he’s around. Rosa understands me. She deserves way better than him. She’s amazing and I…” She broke off, her eyes wider than he’d ever seen them go before as realisation washed over her face. “I love her.”

“There we go.”

“Oh. Oh, no. No, no, no. This cannot be happening.” Gina shook her head vehemently. Then she glanced over towards the bar where Rosa was perching on a stool, laughing at something Pimento was saying. “Yuck. Gross. No, _that_ cannot be happening. No.”

Jake shrugged, taking another sip of his beer. “Then you need to do something about it, Gina.”

“But what, Jakey? What?”

The next half an hour was spent psyching Gina up to go and speak to Rosa about how she felt. Jake had known Gina for almost all of his life and he’d never seen her in such a state before. She was unsure and confused and questioning herself. It was almost enough to terrify Jake. He was, however, not a quitter and he had set his mind on his best friend getting her girl.

Gina had just about made up her mind to go and speak to Rosa, when they realised that she was winding her way through the tables towards them. Gina’s heart leapt in her chest as her eyes fell on the other woman. She couldn’t understand how she hadn’t worked out how she felt before; it was so obvious now she knew. Her heart sank again as she spotted Pimento following, hanging onto Rosa’s hand.

“We’re leaving.” Rosa announced, appearing in front of their table with Pimento and nodding at both of them. “Oh… and we’re engaged.”

In that moment, Gina decided she now knew how it felt to be hit by a bus.


	5. Chapter 5

“How long has it been since you and Rosa spoke directly to each other?” Jake asked, perching on the edge of Gina’s desk and folding his arms. “Because I think we all miss the top-notch banter in the staff room.” When she looked as though she didn’t believe him, he shrugged. “No, seriously, we really miss it. Charles was almost crying at the missed opportunity he left wide open for the pair of you yesterday.”

Gina nodded slowly. “Yeah… that was bad. It nearly broke me not to mock him. Such a waste…”

“But it’s been two weeks, Gina! It feels like way longer, though. I had to ask Amy to double check on a calendar.”

“Why ask me the question if you know the answer, Pineapples?” She demanded, narrowing her eyes at him. “That _is_ a phenomenal waste of my precious, precious time. And speaking of precious time, don’t you have somewhere to be, Peralta?”

“Charles is teaching my class. You do the staff timetables, so you should really know that.” He replied with a shrug. “We need to sort this out… I can’t go on like this. Think of _me_ , Gina.”

“Are you serious right now?”

“Yes! You haven’t made Amy question herself, made Terry threaten HR training or made Holt do the angry enunciating thing in _forever_. I feel like people are just coming here to _work_.”

“Not my problem.”

“Does Rosa even realise you _like_ her like her?”

“Ew, what? Jakey, no!” Gina wrinkled her nose. “What did you expect? That I’d go up to her and say, ‘hey, Rosa, we’d make one sweet ass hot couple. What d’you reckon, wanna bone?’ No. That is not my style. Gina Linetti does _not_ do the chasing. _They_ come to _me_.”

“You’ve never tried to date Rosa before, though.” Her best friend pointed out. “I’m not sure the tried and tested Gina Linetti methods are exactly going to be effective on her. She’s Rosa Diaz; I’m pretty sure she’s immune to normal emotions. She regularly tells her class of seven, eight and nine-year-olds that they’re stupid and she hates them… it just makes them love her more.” He shook his head in wonder, before narrowing his eyes and nodding at her slowly. “We need to come up with a new plan.”

Gina looked disgusted. “No.”

“Gina–”

“She’s engaged to that loser. She’s known him for like three weeks and they’re getting married. Who does that?”

“Uhhh… you? You’ve literally been engaged eight times, Gina.”

“But I’ve never actually got married, have I? People have to buy you presents when you get engaged. I’m a genius.”

“Maybe Rosa’s trying to make you jealous?”

Considering it for a long time, Gina finally nodded. “That makes sense. In fact, it’s the only possible reason for this whole, atrocious, situation. Getting engaged that quickly is so not a Rosa move but it is a move that would get my attention.” She gasped theatrically. “Rosa’s trying to get my attention! That sneaky, gorgeous hot piece of ass.” 

Jake pulled a face. “Great… are you going to go and tell her she’s got your attention, now?”

“Of course not, dummy. That would be _far_ too easy.”

“So what _are_ you going to do?”

“I’m going to let her continue this little travesty.” Gina replied, her eyes narrowing. “I’m going to let her get so invested in this disgusting, vomit-inducing courtship and then step in and show her the error of her ways. I’ve recently discovered the benefits of sitting on a high horse and I’m damn sure that’s where I’ll be by the end of this charade.”

“Gina, I’m not sure that–”

“M’kay, I literally did not ask for your input.”

“Yeah, but–”

“Nope… still not interested. I checked and I still didn’t ask for your opinion. Anyway, don’t you have some sub-standard, mostly illegible marking to do somewhere that’s not here?” Gina stared at Jake until he sighed, held up his hands in surrender and left the reception area. “Bye, bae!”

As soon as Jack had left her domain, Gina flopped against the back of her chair and huffed petulantly. She wasn’t used to not getting what she wanted and she wanted Rosa Diaz. The second the brunette had started showing an interest in the supply teacher, Gina had phoned up the agency and told them that they no longer wanted Pimento on their list of possible cover teachers. They’d asked lots of questions, so she’d blackened his name sufficiently and earned them a discount on their next booking with the company.

She had also tried to ban significant others from the Christmas party that evening, but that had backfired when Rosa had just shrugged and said she hadn’t really wanted to go anyway. Reluctantly Gina had made an announcement and informed them that the venue of their party had backed down under her significant charm and allowed them to bring partners. Jake and Amy had sent her knowing looks as she climbed down from the staff room table, but she’d simply ignored their expressions and made a scathing comment about them being lucky they met, because there would have been two empty chairs at the table otherwise.

“Hey, Gina, d’you wanna carpool to this shindig tonight?” Charles asked, making her jump theatrically and clutch a hand to her chest.

“Ewww. Why would I _ever_ want that, Charles?”

“I thought it would be nice if I could pick my sister up and spend some time with my favourite niece before we leave? Get some real family bonding time in before the main event. I’m sure Iggy’s missing Uncle Char–”

“No, she is not. I’ve taught her to cry when she hears your name and scream whenever she sees a picture of you. She’s a genius just like her mommy.” Gina smiled fondly. “But I _am_ kinda interested to see what goes down when she’s confronted with the full horror of your presence… Also, you have not earned the right to call her by anything other than her full and proper title, the Enigma.”

“So no carpool?”

“No. Absolutely not.” She shook her head vehemently. “I will see you at the restaurant along with everyone else and only because you are on the guest list and definitely not because you are my brother or I like you in any way. Understood?”

“Understood.” He agreed with a bright smile. “By the way, cousin Milton said something odd the other day… he said he’d be seeing me tonight. At the staff party. He said he was coming to the staff party tonight.” He was starting to look a little desperate. “Why would he say that, Gina?”

“Because I invited him.” She replied simply. “Because he’s really into me and it makes me feel good. I need constant validation about how amazing I am. You know that, Charles.”

“But _Milton_?” The disgust was clear on his face. “There are so many _much_ better Boyle cousins you could have chosen. What about Tina? Or Sam? Or even Sherman? Milton didn’t even finish High School.”

“Firstly, ewww.” Gina shuddered. “And second, Milton is rich and hot and into me. Oh and he’s my baby-daddy.”

With a deep sigh and an affectionate shake of his head, Charles put his hand on her shoulder. “I need to get back to work. Think about what I said; I’m sure Tina’s not busy tonight if you change your mind. I love you Gina.”

“Get out, Charles. This is now a Boyle-free zone.”

Gina spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing. In her eyes, the last day of term was another way of saying the first day of her holidays and so she spent it as such. She did a bit of internet shopping – making sure she had plenty of substitutions for the no doubt countless crappy presents her family and friends would attempt to wow her with – before she finished painting her nails with pure glitter. 

Finally, it was half past two, a time that Gina deemed a respectable one to leave; despite the fact that there was another hour until the home time bell rang. Gathering her things, Gina called a cheery goodbye to Holt – who didn’t even attempt to stop her leaving – before heading out to her car. She only had four and a half hours to make herself look truly dazzling. Gina laughed; it was not going to be a problem.

* * *

Holt and his husband were already seated by the time Gina and Milton arrived at the restaurant, fashionably late as always. The secretary greeted Kevin like an old friend, much to her boss’ apparent discomfort. Gina was very proud of the progress she’d made in encouraging Kevin to refer to her as ‘Gina’ rather than ‘Ms Linetti’ and was loathed to let such an opportunity to intimidate her colleagues with her closeness to the man go unnoticed.

Someone (Gina guessed it was probably Charles, as he was too nice for his own good) had invited Scully and Hitchcock from the incredibly inept maintenance crew and now, due to her late arrival, Gina found that she had no choice but to either sit beside Scully and opposite Rosa or at the very end of the table opposite Pimento. She dropped into the chair beside Scully’s, fixing the entire table with an enigmatic smile and immediately reaching for the closest bottle of wine. Gina had a feeling she was going to need rather a lot of alcohol to get through the evening.

By the time the main courses arrived, Gina was ready to kill someone. Jake and Amy were being all lovey-dovey and making gooey eyes at each other, while Charles was feeding Genevieve her dinner in disgustingly small amounts on the end of his fork. Holt and Kevin were being perfectly normal (in their own completely abnormal way), but were seated at the opposite end of the table with Terry and Sharon and therefore too far away for Gina to talk to. Scully and Hitchcock were making Gina feel ill just by existing in her presence.

With the rest of the party pretty much ruled out, Gina had no choice but to acknowledge Rosa and Pimento’s existences. It felt good, she was forced to admit to herself, to talk to Rosa again. She’d missed the other woman’s blunt, dry sense of humour and the way they instinctively bounced off each other when completely annihilating their colleagues with their immense wit. They easily slipped back into their old routine; the way Rosa’s eyes sparkled when Gina made a particularly brutal quip about Charles’ shirt and tie combo caused an odd warmth to blossom in her chest.

“I need some air.” She muttered faintly, not sounding remotely like herself.

Shaking her head sharply when Milton offered to accompany her outside, Gina made her way towards the double doors that led out into a small courtyard. She leant against the rough stone wall, letting her eyes slip closed as she felt the damp coldness seep under her skin.

“Idiot…” She muttered under her breath, shaking her head.

“Hey?”

Pushing herself away from the wall, Gina wrapped her arms defensively around her body and stared at the person who had dared to invade her moment. Rosa stared back, concern evident in her dark eyes as she watched the other woman carefully.

“Diaz. What can I do for you?”

“Are you alright?" 

“I don’t know what you mean? I know that like 90% of the heat in the room was directly caused by my natural hotness, but it was just getting a little overwhelming, you know? Sometimes a girl just needs a break and some fresh air.”

“Right.” Rosa nodded sharply, not meeting Gina’s eyes. After a moment she shrugged. “I’ve missed that.”

“Destroying the lesser beings with our combined genius? Me too.”

“I still don’t like Milton. What are you even doing with him? You can do so much better, Gi. He’s a jerk.”

“He’s my kid’s dad. Anyway, you’re with Pimento and I can’t stand him. He’s an even _bigger_ jerk.”

“You should give Adrian a chance. He’s actually a great guy.”

“No thanks.” Gina shook her head, her expression a mask of indifference. “I think maybe we shouldn’t talk about this now.”

Rosa nodded in agreement and they stood in silence for a couple of moments. Gina watched her breath clouding in the night air in front of her, thinking about all the things she wanted to say to the other woman. For perhaps the first time in her life, Gina was too scared to say what was on her mind.

“So I… errr…” Rosa rubbed the back of her neck, a scowl clearly on her face. With her other hand, she thrust a large gift bag towards the other woman. Gina had no idea how she hadn’t noticed it before. “I got you a present… or whatever. And there’s one in there for Iggy. You’ll probably both hate them… that’s fine. They’re stupid. I dunno what dumb crap you guys like. You can just… throw it away.”

“Rosa…”

“I’ve gotta go.” 

Before Gina could say anything else, Rosa had put her head down, stalked back into the building and weaved her way between the tables. Gina blinked a couple of times at the bag in her hand, unsure how to react to the offering. She peeked inside, foiled in her quest to see what Rosa had bought by the surprisingly neat wrapping. Gina had half expected the gifts to either be unwrapped or be hastily and messily covered in sheets of newspaper or something. To her immense surprise the redhead thought she caught sight of a pink, sparkly bow near the bottom of the bag.

By the time Gina had re-joined their party, Pimento was helping Rosa into her formal leather jacket. Her heart sank as she watched him place his hand proprietorially on the small of her back as Rosa leant over to say goodbye to Holt. Gina’s eyes were magnetically drawn to the tall brunette’s figure. The bright blue dress she was wearing was so different to the colours she wore everyday that it had completely taken Gina’s breath away when she and Milton had arrived at the restaurant; so much so that her daughter’s father had been forced to repeat himself four times before she heard him asking what she wanted to drink. Suddenly aware that Rosa was looking at her, her eyebrows furrowed as she clearly wondered why Gina was just staring blankly at her, her cheeks suddenly felt very hot and she cursed herself. Gina Linetti did _not_ blush.

“We need to leave.” She announced, blindly reaching out and slapping Milton on the forearm. “Now. We need to go home.”

“Great!” His eyes lit up at her urgency.

“No. Ewww. No. Never.” Gina frowned at him. “Bad baby-daddy. I need to get home and see Iggy so my mom can leave. I said we wouldn’t be too late. You can drop me outside and then go to your own… house? I don’t know where you live.”

“Ahhh, things sure have changed.” Jake sighed wistfully. “Do you remember the parties in the days before babies and fiancés?”

“Those were some good parties.” Charles agreed, shaking his head sadly.

“Well this has been sufficiently…” Gina trailed off, not even having the desire to finish her insult. “Bye.”

Milton drew up outside Gina’s house before she had even realised it; still too lost in her own thoughts to think about what was happening. Completely ignoring his hints about going inside, she told him that he could pick their daughter up on Boxing Day and stalked up the path to the front door.

If Darlene was concerned about her daughter’s behaviour, she didn’t say anything. Gina winced, covering her ears, as the older Linetti went into great detail about the plans she and Lynn had for their family over the holiday period. By the time she managed to push her mother out of the front door, Gina was almost bursting with curiosity about what was in the gift bag from Rosa. There was absolutely no way she was waiting four days to open it.

Hearing a whimpering from her daughter’s room, she kicked off her heels, fished the present for the toddler out of the gift bag and went to settle her. Scooping Enigma out of her cot, Gina rocked her gently as she one-handedly opened her present.

“Oh, look baby girl. Rosa bought you a little wolfie. You remember Rosie, right? The stone cold bitch who was totally beautiful and also a big softie on the DL? Mmm… I totally agree; she _should_ just ditch that loser and come and see us soon.”

Gina was unsurprised that her baby continued to fuss when she gently laid her down in her cot. What did surprise her was that when she placed the wolf plushie beside her on the mattress, Enigma immediately fisted one tiny hand in the soft fur and let out a small, quiet sigh. Her whinging stopped immediately and she fell soundly asleep.

“Huh… that’s interesting.”

Considering the possible link between Rosa’s gift and her daughter settling enough to sleep, Gina padded back into the living room and eyed the gift bag almost suspiciously. Needing a moment, she collected a bottle of vodka from the cupboard under her kitchen counter and found a glass. Pouring herself a healthy measure, she took several sips before making her way back to face her present.

Downing the last of the liquid in her glass, Gina took a breath and ripped open her present. She frowned for a moment, before unfolding a thick, fluffy blanket with a wolf’s head design in blues and greys. It was a perfect replacement for the one she’d been forced to give Scully and Hitchcock in order to stop them using her and Rosa’s preferred bathroom at work. 

“Oh Diaz…” she breathed, bunching the cosy material in her hands. “You’ve really done it now.”


	6. Chapter 6

The spring term started with very little fanfare. Rosa was still with Pimento, much to Gina’s immense disgust. The two women had spent a little more time together since Christmas, but the brunette always seemed to be busy with her fiancé and Gina was on the verge of cutting her losses and announcing that their friendship was over. Something stopped her making that step, however, and kept her coming back for more, no matter how much it hurt.

Added to that, Charles hadn’t managed to mess up his relationship with Genevieve over the festive period; in fact they had decided to adopt a child together. Even Jake and Amy still seemed to be loved up. All in all, Gina’s mood throughout the entirely of January was terrible.

February, however, seemed to ring in a complete change in attitude from the secretary. She actually smiled at Charles when he suggested that she and Enigma join him and Genevieve for dinner to discuss their impending adoption. Then she came up with a convoluted and completely fictitious reason why she would not be attending, but at least she smiled as she did so, so Charles took it as a small victory for the Boyle-Linetti family unit.

The week before half term, Jake found himself perching on Gina’s desk in the middle of the afternoon. She hadn’t mentioned anything about Rosa and her feelings about her for a while, so he had decided to be the amazing friend he knew he was and check whether she was alright.

“Who’s that for?” Jake asked, watching as she liberally sprinkled red glitter (no doubt stolen from Amy’s craft area) over the large heart drawn on the front of the card she was making.

“You can have one guess. I may confirm or deny whether you’re right, but also I may not. Don’t waste it, Pineapples.”

“It’s Rosa, isn’t it?” Her friend asked, not needing to think about his answer. “I don't know why you’re bothering. You know what happens to anything she receives on V-Day.”

Every year Rosa received Valentine’s Day cards from a large percentage of the children; not just those in her class. Without fail she would collect them in a large pile on her desk until the end of the day when she would drop them in her paper recycling bin and set fire to them. After the third time this happened, Holt had ordered that she carry out this routine – Gina had taken to referring to it as the Diaz Romance Cleansing Ritual – outside so that she stopped setting off the fire alarms and sprinkler system. 

“Why are you even here?” Was the only response Jake received.

“Seriously, though, is it for Rosa? It is, isn’t it? You’ve made a super glittery card for Rosa.” He pulled a face. “Why, Gina? Rosa is _not_ a glittery card kinda person.”

“Oh, please, boo. Once she might not have been a glittery card kind of person, but no one can resist a Gina Linetti glittery card.”

“I don’t think you should give her this, Gina. She’s been in a horrible mood recently, worse than normal. I don’t want her to take it out on you. Do you even know if she likes women? I’m pretty sure she’s straight and I don’t want you to get hurt when she stomps all over your heart with her super heavy biker boots.”

“I won’t, Jake.”

“Gina…” He sighed, more serious than she had seen him for a very long time. “You’re like my sister. I’ve known you forever and I have _never_ seen you pine before. It’s super scary.”

“I’m not _pining_.” Gina looked affronted at the very idea.

“You are, dude, you really are. Last week we had that _really_ hot supply teacher covering Amy – the one who looked like ScarJo, remember? You didn’t even look at her twice. She left you her number and you ‘lost’ it. You didn’t even follow her back on Instagram.”

“That’s not evidence,” she groused finally, “you know I don’t have a follow-back policy like Terry does.”

“I thought you were actually gonna punch Doug Judy the other day.”

“He’s the piano teacher!” Gina defended herself. “Why’s he gotta come in here flirting up a storm? It made me want to projectile vomit all over him and his stupid piano!”

“It’s because he flirts with Rosa, isn’t it, though?”

“No.”

“Just think about it, OK?” He urged gently. “Maybe moving on is a better option. Rosa’s happy… as far as I can tell… you should be too.” Gina simply shrugged at him, so he decided to change the topic of conversation. “So… I’ve got an amazing idea for Amy’s Valentine’s surprise.” He told her excitedly. At that, Gina finally looked up from her glittery mess with an interested smirk in place on her features. “But I might need your help.”

“Of course you do, boo.” She replied with a knowing nod. Her entire demeanour had changed now that they were no longer talking about her issues. “What is it? Something soppy like getting her class to sing her a song?” When Jake didn’t reply, she knew she was right. “Oh, Jakey… you disappoint me. But I will help you. But only because it’s you and I feel like I owe it to Nana to stop you completely ruining your entire life.”

His face brightened immediately and he hurriedly launched into an explanation of his idea. Gina shook her head as he spoke, butting in every now and again to point out both ridiculous and genuine logistical flaws with his plan. When he mentioned Charles, she nodded and led him out of the office to go in search of the interventions teacher. The Valentine’s Day card she’d been making lay on the desk, completely forgotten.

By the time she’d convinced Charles to let them interrupt his cover lesson and trained a group of four and five-year-olds in a passable dance routine, Gina was ready to drop. She retreated to the reception area with threats of violence to anyone who dared to spoil her peace and quiet. She was so engaged in scrolling endlessly through various social media apps that it took her a good twenty-five minutes to realise that her unique, glittery creation was no longer on her desk.

Her heart seemed to stop in her chest, before beating again at a wholly unexpected rate. She went pale, searching through various papers and trays for the Valentine’s Day card, swearing under her breath as she desperately tried to find it. While she’d made out to Jake that she was definitely going to give it to Rosa, Gina hadn’t actually made up her mind whether she was going to or not. Underneath her confidence she was worried that Jake was right and Rosa would indeed stomp all over her heart. 

“Ah, Gina,” Holt wandered into reception from his office, apparently not noticing his secretary ripping the space apart, “I need the latest free school meals figures. I am convinced that County have made a terrible mistake with the funding we were supposed to receive.”

“Uhhh… I’m a little busy here.”

He furrowed his eyebrows. “What’s happened?”

“I’ve lost… Iggy’s Valentine’s card.” Gina lied smoothly. “She made it at the child-minder’s and wanted to give it to her Aunty Rosa. It was right here when I went to teach Amy’s class a dance routine and now it’s gone.”

Holt blinked at her a couple of times. “I thought your daughter was fourteen and a half months old?”

“Yeah, so? She’s a certified genius like her mommy. She can spell and everything. I am, however, impressed that you remember exactly how old she is.” 

“Huh… well, let me know if you find it.” Holt nodded. “I am intrigued to see her penmanship.”

“OK, Captain.”

As he headed back to the relative safety of his office, Gina resumed her task of ripping her desk apart. When it became clear that the card definitely wasn’t there, she headed through the corridor in the direction of the staff room where she found Amy settled at the table with a spreadsheet open on the laptop screen in front of her. Having absolutely no interest in what she was doing, Gina leant on the table with her palms flat against the surface and stared at her until she looked up.

“Oh, hey, Gina. How can I help you?” 

“Have you been in my space?”

“Uhh… I had to go to the printer to collect the hard copy of my tracking sheet. I find it easier to–”

“Not interested.” Gina cut her off irritably. “Did you see a fantastically unique piece of art that would double as a super romantic V-Day card?”

Amy wrinkled her forehead for a moment, before sudden realisation dawned on her face and her eyes widened. “Oh… oh no.”

“What have you done, Santiago?”

“I might have… I just saw that it was a Valentine’s card covered in _a lot_ of glitter and I assumed that it had been put on your desk instead of being posted in the box. So I… posted it?” Her statement sounded more like a question as she stared at Gina, apparently waiting for judgement to fall on her actions. 

“No! Amy! You have no idea what you’ve done!” 

“I posted your Valentine’s card to Rosa?” 

“OK, so you _do_ know what you’ve done.” Gina nodded. “But do you also see why you’ve made a terrible, terrible mistake? And why I’m going to make sure you have a terrible, terrible life if we can’t fix this?”

“Yes.” Amy almost whispered. “We should probably try and get the card back.”

“Ya think?" 

Hurrying down the corridor, Amy was the first to reach the cardboard post box they put out before Christmas and on Valentine’s Day to collect the children’s cards. Removing the lid nervously, Amy readied herself to hunt through the envelopes for the one she’d mistakenly posted. To her horror and Gina’s fury, however, the box was completely empty.

“They’ve already collected them.”

“What? No, no, no!” Amy was surprised to see actual fear in the auburn-haired woman’s eyes. “This cannot be happening, Amy!”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She apologised weakly. “I’ll go and get it.”

Gina nodded and folded her arms, watching the younger woman scuttling in the direction of Rosa’s classroom. Amy took a deep breath before knocking on the door and entering the room. Feeling a smug sense of vengeance, Gina could hear Rosa’s sarcastic, irritated tone from where she was standing.

Amy was only inside for a couple of moments, before she emerged and almost ran towards her looking ashen-faced. Gina’s heart thudded painfully in her chest as she realised the younger woman was empty-handed. Amy paused for a moment, hands on hips, shaking her head before speaking. 

“Rosa is really, _really_ mean when you interrupt whole class reading time; even in front of her class.” She informed the secretary, who simply shrugged her shoulders and motioned for her to continue. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“Bad. No, good. No… gimme the bad news.”

“OK, so the bad news is that she’s already read the card.”

“Shit. That is epically bad news, Amy. That’s some inner circle of hell level bad news.” Gina wailed dramatically. “Wait? What’s the good news?”

“She’s read your card." 

“That was the bad news! The horrendously terrible news!”

“Yeah, but,” Amy almost tripped over herself to explain, “Rosa’s _read_ the card.” 

“Yes, you said.”

“No, Gina… she’s read the card and she hasn’t stormed out of her class to yell at you… or worse.”

Understanding dawned on Gina’s face. “Oh… very good point, Ames.”

“You just need to wait another… twenty three minutes until the end of the day. Then you’ll find out Rosa’s reaction.”

Strangely enough, that didn’t do much to set Gina at ease. She spent the next half an hour ignoring anything apart from her mobile, including several parents who came to speak to Holt and a delivery for the canteen. After watching the same video three times without taking much notice of what happened to the man on the skateboard, Gina sighed and slammed her phone down on the desk, before burying her head in her hands.

“We need to talk.”

“Holy crap, Rosa.” Gina clutched her chest dramatically. She didn’t need to fake her shock; she was genuinely alarmed by the other woman’s sudden appearance. “How long have you been standing there?"

“About two minutes.”

“Right… so… talking?" 

“Not here. Your place? Half an hour?”

Gina nodded wordlessly, before feeling the need to say something. “Iggy’s gonna be psyched. She’s really missed you.” When Rosa mumbled something in response, Gina frowned lightly. “Huh?”

“I’ve missed her too.” Rosa repeated, looking embarrassed. “Arlo definitely has. So I’ll see you in a bit." 

Without waiting, she turned and stalked away, leaving Gina staring after her and wondering what was about to happen. Biting her lip, she gathered her things and headed home in a hurry, only stopping to collect Enigma from the child-minder’s house. Gina was sharper than normal with the woman who looked after her daughter, but she evidently didn’t think anything of it, because she simply smiled and wished Gina a good evening.

Deciding that having Enigma in the room would act as a suitable buffer if Rosa was coming over to tell her that she hated her or never wanted to see her again, the auburn-haired woman forced herself to calm down slightly. She was trying to tell herself that it was highly unlikely – that Gina Linetti was irresistible – but her usually locked-down, hidden away insecurity had well and truly set in.

Settling her daughter on the carpet with a pile of toys to keep her occupied, Gina busied herself by tidying up while she waited for her guest to arrive. Every time she heard something driving past her house she tensed, but it always turned out to be a false alarm.

Until it wasn’t.

“This is a whole new feeling for me.” Gina announced the second she opened the door and met Rosa’s eyes. “I don’t get nervous and I definitely don't wait around in my house for someone to turn up and _talk_.” She frowned, as though confused, leading the way into the living room. “Except apparently now I do.”

Rosa chuckled softly, looking a little awkward and out of place as she stood nervously beside the sofa. “Yeah, I… that wasn’t my best moment. But we do need to talk, Gina.” 

“D’you want a drink?” She asked, stalling for time. “You can say hi to Iggy while I make us a coffee.”

As she almost fled from the room, Rosa placed her helmet carefully on the end of the coffee table and moved to kneel on the floor beside the toddler. Enigma looked at her, as though only just noticing the woman. Immediately her face split into a wide, delighted smile and she reached out for Rosa’s hair. Unable to keep her own smile off her face, Rosa scooped her up and settled her so that she was standing on her thighs.

“Hey, sweet girl.” She greeted her softly. “How’re you doing?” Lowering her voice even more, so that she was sure Gina wouldn’t hear, she leant in closer. “I really missed you and your mom, you know?” 

“So… let’s get this talk over with, then.” Gina announced, appearing back in the living room. She had apparently given herself a pep talk in her kitchen because she was looking a lot more like herself. “My daughter is here because you 100% can’t yell at me in front of her.”

“I won’t be yelling.” Rosa promised her with a smile. She settled Enigma back on the carpet and moved to sit on the sofa. “I got your card.”

“That was–” Gina started, intending to blame Amy. Then she stopped and sighed. “Right.”

“I liked it.” 

“What?”

“I liked it.” Rosa repeated, pulling the card in question out of her jacket pocked and smiling down at it. “Thank you.”

“I’ve got to admit, that was the complete opposite of what I was expecting.” Gina told her. Then she took a deep breath. “OK, we’re gonna have to start getting real… I’m talking about deep feelings and shit, Diaz.”

“I know.” The brunette nodded, clearly steeling herself for the conversation. “So… I broke it off with Pimento.”

Gina’s mouth dropped open, unable to hide her concern. “What? When? What happened? Are you alright?”

“Last week… it was just… he was too much. You know?” Rosa bit her lip, shaking her head. “No, that’s not it.” She took a stuttering breath, clenching her fists and obviously struggling with what she wanted to say. “He _was_ too much, but that’s not why… It was before. We got too close and then I realised that I felt more than I ever imagined I would… more than I ever imagined I _could_. So I panicked. I panicked and I ran and I messed everything up. I’ve never regretted anything so much in my entire life.”

“I’m sure he’d take you back.” Gina told her bitterly, her nails cutting into her palms as she fought to keep her voice even. “He’d be out of his mind to let you go without a fight." 

“He… what?” Rosa frowned at her.

“You… you just said you regretted breaking up with him.”

“No, I…” She shook her head vehemently and let out a long huff. “Not Pimento. I don’t regret breaking up with _him_. I was talking about us." 

Gina was sure she felt her heart actually stop beating. “Us?” 

“I know we weren’t actually an _us_ ,” Rosa said softly, turning soft, imploring eyes on the other woman, “but… I think… I _hope_ that was only because I was a coward? If I hadn’t… with Pimento… do you think…?”

“I…” 

“I know I ruined things, Gina. I’ve spent the last week despising myself for it.”

“That explains the… never mind.” Gina decided it was not the moment to raise Rosa’s recent foul mood. “So you… me…” She felt a little faint at the implication of what was being said. “You… would want that?” 

“I do.” Rosa nodded.

Locking eyes with Gina, she licked her lips slowly before leaning forward and closing the gap between them. Hesitating for a split second, Gina’s eyes dropped to Rosa’s lips before she moved to meet her. Their first kiss was tender and loving, not how either of them had imagined it at all.

It was, however, perfect.


	7. Chapter 7

Gina was mindful of her daughter, still playing with her toys in the middle of the floor. Rosa also seemed to be thinking about the little girl because she drew back slowly, raising one hand to Gina’s cheek to keep her there for a moment, a soft smile on her face. Dragging her thumb across the other woman’s cheekbone, Rosa leant in to press a quick, chaste kiss to her lips before drawing back completely.

“That was better than I ever dreamt.”

Gina couldn’t help the teasing smirk that twisted her lips. “You dreamt about me?" 

“All the time. It was quite embarrassing, really. I had to tell Pimento I kept dreaming that you were stealing my stuff because he asked why I said your name in my sleep… like a _lot_.”

“That’s adorable, boo.”

Rosa chuckled lightly. She froze a little as Gina threw her legs over her lap and scooted closer. Wrapping her arm around the shorter woman, she smiled and melted into her as Gina curled into her side with a soft sigh.

“So… how do you want to do this?” Rosa asked slowly. “I mean… you’ve got Iggy to think about. She has to be your number one priority and–”

“The fact you know that is everything, Rosie.” Gina said, turning to look at her with eyes that told Rosa far too much about how she felt. Before, it would have made the Latina run for the door. Now, it made her want to hold on just a little bit tighter.

“Can we… keep this between ourselves for now?” She asked softly.

“I was looking forward to seeing the expression on Jake’s face.” 

“Why?”

“He didn’t say it in so many words. He didn’t need to. But he made it really fucking clear that he thought this,” she waved a hand between them, “would end in my precious, sparkly, little heart getting stomped all over.”

Rosa looked pained at that. “Gina…”

“It’s OK, Rosa, honestly.” Gina promised her, leaning in to press a soft kiss to her lips. “Well, it wasn’t at the time, but this more than makes up for the past few months.”

“I didn’t realise you were even that bothered until Christmas.” Rosa admitted, pulling her gaze away and watching Enigma flicking indiscriminately through the pages of an upside-down book. “But when you left the table… you looked so lost and I realised that maybe what I felt wasn’t so one-sided. Then I tried to pretend I hadn't seen so it didn’t hurt quite so much. God… I really was a coward.”

“You were the worst.” The other woman agreed lightly, shrugging her shoulders and snuggling more firmly into her side. “But it’s history. Done and dusted. I’ve never been a fan of history. Always more of a living in the moment kinda girl.” She grinned at the expression on Rosa’s face, before pressing a kiss to her collarbone and then straightening and moving to perch on the edge of the sofa. “I need to bathe Iggy and put her to bed. You still gonna be here when I come back?”

Despite the teasing smirk on her face, Rosa could see the worry in her eyes and hear the faint shake in her voice as she stood. “If you want me to be?”

“I do. Very much so.”

Rosa smiled. “Then I’ll be right here.”

“Good.” Gina blinked and then shrugged. “I mean, whatever, boo… you do you.”

“Don’t… don’t do that.” The brunette shook her head, reaching out and catching her hand, squeezing lightly. “Be real… tell me. I’m not good with… feelings. But I want to be. With you. _For_ you.”

“I don’t want you to change, Rosa. I want _you_ … as you are.”

“I want to try anyway.”

“OK… I’m worried that you’ll change your mind and decide that you don’t want this after all.” Gina informed her bluntly, folding her arms and regarding the other woman with an expression that could best be described as dread. “Or you’ll do… whatever this is… for a while and _then_ you’ll leave. Is that why you don’t want anyone else to know? I can’t help thinking it’s because you don’t think this will last. I can’t do that. I’ve got feelings and a kid and–”

“I’m not leaving. Not now, not ever… if you’ll have me.” Rosa moved quickly, crossing the space between them and taking both of Gina’s hands in hers. She looked completely exhausted, like she was at her absolute breaking point. It made Rosa’s heart feel like it was breaking. “I don’t want anyone else to know because it’s _none_ of their business. There are basically no secrets in that place and I just want this to be ours for a little while. But I promise you, I won’t run again.” Gina looked at the sincerity in Rosa’s eyes and believed her. She nodded, biting her lip. “You deserve so much better than that. I want to make it up to you. OK?”

Leaning in, Gina kissed her again. “OK.”

As she scooped up Enigma and headed upstairs to settle her for bed, Rosa sank back into the sofa cushions and reached out for the TV remote. She sighed softly, looking around at the oh-so-familiar living room. It seemed crazy to her now that she hadn’t seen what was happening before. She and Gina had been in a relationship – just without overly romantic or physical parts. It was so obvious now she was looking back but, apparently, she was the only one who hadn’t realised it at the time.

Internally she cursed herself for her stupidity. Then she sat up straighter, touching the glittery heart on the card Gina had given her tenderly. Standing it up on the coffee table, Rosa shrugged off her jacket and went to hang it on the coat stand, knowing that Gina would only do it if she didn’t.

She had a second chance with Gina Linetti – not something many people could boast about getting – and she was determined not to mess it up again.

“Sorry, she wanted two stories tonight and I just cannot say no to that kid.” Gina announced, making Rosa jump. She laughed. “Looking a little jumpy, there, Diaz.”

“Shut up.”

Gina laughed again, moving slowly towards her. There was an almost predatory gleam in her eyes as she stalked towards Rosa, before settling herself in her lap, one knee on either side of the Latina’s thighs. Rosa blinked, unsure what was happening and whether it was some kind of test. Gina smirked, leaning forward and whispering in her ear. 

“You can touch me, you know.”

“I… think we should take it slow.” Rosa ground out, clenching her hands into fists, desperate to touch Gina but stopping herself. “Until you’re sure you can trust me.”

Threading her fingers through dark curls, nails lightly scratching Rosa’s scalp, Gina leant back so that she could stare the other woman down. “We’ve waited long enough. Far too long. Years, even. I trust you, Rosa.”

“Gina…” They both knew exactly how affected Rosa was and how hard she was fighting not to just throw Gina down on the sofa and lose herself in the other woman. “I need you to tell me you really want this. I need you to be sure.”

“I really, really, really want this, Rosa.” She assured her, punctuating each assurance with a kiss. “I want _you_. I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

That was all the brunette needed to set her mind at ease. Surging forward, she wrapped her arms around Gina’s waist and kissed her deeply. When Gina gasped lightly, Rosa took the opportunity to slide her tongue between her lips, revelling in the moan that she earned. Spurred on by the sound, she slid her hands down to cup Gina’s ass, pulling her more firmly against her. A moan was ripped from Rosa’s throat when Gina ground her hips down against her, causing a delicious friction and sending a spike of arousal straight to her core.

Torn between her intense need to feel Gina, to touch her, to see all of her and her need to make sure Gina knew exactly what this meant to her, Rosa hesitated for a moment. As though reading her mind, knowing exactly what she was thinking, Gina took control. She pressed the other woman back into the cushions and tackled the button on her jeans.

* * *

“Well, that was _so_ worth the wait.” Gina announced as soon as she’d got her breath back.

“Yeah?”

Rolling her eyes, the auburn-haired woman gently hit out, the back of her hand flopping onto Rosa’s toned, bare stomach. Her lips twitched into a triumphant smirk as she felt the muscles twitch involuntarily at her touch. Rosa had lost her t-shirt somewhere along the line, the button and zip of her jeans undone and shoved out of the way. Gina’s shirt was unbuttoned, hanging loose off her shoulders and her skirt was bunched up around her hips. They’d been in too much of a rush to undress properly.

“Being humble doesn’t suit you, Diaz.” Gina informed her, none of her usual bite in her tone as she reached out and linked her fingers through the other woman’s. “You know you’re good.” 

Rosa chuckled. “I might need a replay, just to make sure.”

“I do have a rather comfortable bed upstairs. Only if you’re interested, of course.”

“I’m very interested.” The brunette assured her, raising their joined hands and pressing a kiss to the back of Gina’s.

“I think everyone will be relieved when they find out.” Gina announced after a long, comfortable silence. She moved her gaze from where she was playing with Rosa’s fingers. “No offence, Rosie, but they all hated Pimento. Charles actually cheered when I told him I’d crossed him off our supply teacher list. No one could _stand_ him. Terry was convinced he was blackmailing you into staying with him or something. Although if anyone’s got enough on you for blackmail it would obviously be me.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Rosa asked, arching an eyebrow. “Jake agreed to be Pimento’s best man.”

“He did _what_?” Gina’s eyes narrowed as she turned to look at the other woman. “That little goblin… he told me he hated him.”

Rosa chuckled, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind Gina’s ear. “He’s a butthead.” Then she shrugged. “But he’s a loyal butthead. He probably just didn’t want to hurt you, Gi. Jake probably thought he’d upset you if he told you, didn’t he? He’s all about that sensitive crap.”

“He’s a moron."

“But anyway, I really think we should keep this between us… for now at least.”

“I agree. It’s nothing to do with anyone else. This is about us.” Gina paused for a moment, leaning closer to press a soft kiss against the corner of Rosa’s mouth. Drawing back, she fixed her with a wicked grin as something occurred to her. “It also means we can have some fun with those jerks. Does anyone else know you broke up with Pimento?” At the expression on her face, Gina giggled. “I guess not. Oh, I am going to enjoy this.”

“Gina, I don’t want to be staff room gossip.”

“No, I know. You won’t be, bae, I promise. I just want to mess with them for a bit.” She paused. “I want them to think they’re losing their tiny minds… to question everything they think they know. I want them to rue the day they ever crossed–”

“That’s great and all, babe,” Rosa cut her off, turning her head and smirking at her, “but you were telling me something about a really great bed around here somewhere?”

* * *

“Morning, sleeping beauty.”

Gina let out a loud sound that indicated how displeased she was at being woken up, before stretching languidly and offering her neck up to be the recipient of the kisses that Rosa was pressing to her jaw. Chuckling, the brunette followed her hint and started pressing wet kisses down the column of her throat.

“We don’t have to work today, right?” Gina groaned, wrapping both arms around the dark head against her chest and trapping Rosa in a hug. “We can just stay here, yeah?" 

“Sadly, no.” Rosa informed her, gently removing her head from the grip and pressing a lingering kiss to Gina’s lips instead. “We need to get up. Can I grab a shower?” 

Nodding, the other woman sighed and rolled out of bed. Apparently Enigma had heard voices and decided that she didn’t want to be ignored. While Gina dealt with her daughter, Rosa showered quickly. Realising she had no clothes to change into, she stepped back into the bedroom wrapped in a towel and fixing Gina with a questioning look. Blue eyes met hers, Gina’s arousal evident in her gaze as she stared. Rosa suddenly felt very warm. 

“You’re not making a great argument for leaving the house and going to work.” Gina told her lightly, forcing herself to look down at Enigma – who was sitting on the bed, pulling at the rumpled duvet – and finish zipping her skirt.

“Have you got a shirt or something I can borrow?” Rosa asked, unable to hide her triumphant smirk.

“You basically wear the same outfit every day, hun. No one’s going to notice if you wear what you wore yesterday.”

Rosa couldn’t argue with the validity of that claim, but shrugged anyway. “I’ll know.”

“OK, fine, you can look in the wardrobe. I am a little worried that all of my clothes are so fabulous that everyone will immediately realise that we’re sleeping with each other.” 

Scoffing, the brunette started riffling through Gina’s shirts. “How?”

“Because it will instantly be obvious that you’re wearing the clothes of someone who shines. That someone being me.”

“Right… I’m pretty sure I’m gonna risk it.”

“Well, that’s on you, pal.” Gina informed her lightly, scooping Enigma up off her bed and clamping the toddler to her hip. She paused for a moment to smile brightly at Rosa before heading for the door. “Coffee?”

Rosa nodded in agreement, watching her leave the room. She was suddenly hit by the realisation that things had got extremely domesticated extremely quickly. Whereas reaching that point with Adrian had terrified her immensely, she didn’t feel scared in the slightest as she listened to the sounds wafting up to meet her from downstairs. A soft smile crossed her face as she headed for the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Rosa cleared her throat, entering the kitchen and picking up the mug of coffee on the counter. It was in her mug; the mug she’d always used every time she’d come over to hang out with Gina before. “You still wanna mess with those dummies?”

“Of course.” Gina grinned at her wickedly. “Those jerks we work with have no idea what’s heading their way.”

Chuckling, Rosa’s hand shot out instinctively to stop Enigma throwing her cup off the tray of her highchair. “So? How’re we gonna play this?”

“I’ve been working on a truly devious and devastating plan all night.”

“You have? When?”

“Gina Linetti never sleeps.”

Rosa arched an eyebrow. “You’re a damn liar. You were snoring.”

“I do not snore.” Gina swatted lightly at her shoulder, before leaning in and stealing a kiss. When Rosa tried to wrap an arm around her, the shorter woman twirled away around to the other side of the island, out of her reach. “My brain was working… it never stops.”

“OK, so what’s this dope idea, then?”

“Wait and see.”

“What? No, Gina… I kinda need to be in on the plan, or it’s not going to work.”

Gina paused for a moment, a frown appearing on her features. “That was a clever lie. I don’t actually have a plan. I was too distracted by your stupid face and your stupid body to do any plotting. I didn’t expect you to call me out on it.”

Rosa snorted. “You didn’t think I would ask what your plan was?”

“I was hoping I could distract you.” She admitted, leaning forward on the island and shooting the brunette a wink. “OK, so, off the top of my head… you read the card, you hated the card, you confronted me about the card, we now hate each other.”

After a short pause where they just stared at each other, Rosa shrugged and held up her hand to high-five the other woman. “Simple. Sounds good. Let’s do this thing.” 

While Gina went to drop Enigma at the child-minder’s house, Rosa climbed onto her bike and made her way to school. She thought about Gina as she drove through the streets, a smile finding its way onto her face and not leaving until she pulled up in her parking space and came face-to-face with the last person she’d been expecting to see.

“Adrian… what are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you, babe.” He surged forward, a wild look in his eyes. 

Rosa shook her arm free of his tight grip, folding her arms defensively. “Stop calling me babe! I already said everything I’ve gotta say.”

“No, but this is a mistake.” He said desperately. “You love me. We’re getting married. This is just… cold feet.” 

“No, it’s not. It’s over, Adrian.”

“Babe, I know you. You’re freaking out because you’ve just realised how much we love each other and how serious we are.”

“Don’t tell me how I’m feeling.” She spat out, her eyes narrowing and her face hardening. “I don’t love you, Pimento. I didn’t want to hurt you, but you just won’t leave it. I don’t love you and I don’t want you. It’s over. I never want to see you again.” 

“You don’t mean that, babe.” 

“I mean it! I’ve never meant anything more. It is _over_.” 

“Please… I’ll change… I’ll do whatever you want.” 

“No, Pimento.” Rosa shook her head. She shrugged, her face remaining blank. “You should probably get out of here before Gina sees you. I dunno what you did, but she really can’t stand you, man. She’ll probably call the cops or something.”

“I won’t give up, Rosa. You’re my girl.” 

“No, I’m _not_.” 

With that, she turned and walked towards the main entrance of the school. Her hands balled into fists at her sides as she resisted the urge to punch him in his stupid face. How she ever thought she loved _him_ – that she wanted to be with _him_ – she didn’t understand.

It was all so clear to her now. Gina… everything was Gina. She’d been so stupid. 

“Rosa?” 

Turning, she frowned at Terry. “Can I not even get inside before you start on me?”

“I was just going to ask if you were alright. I saw Adrian… he said he wanted to talk to you. Are you two OK?”

She let out a long, exasperated breath. “Oh my god! Why can’t everyone just leave me alone?”

“Terry’s just worried about his friend.” He told her, looking hurt by her tone. “Terry loves love.”

“I’m fine.” Rosa assured him, forcing herself to smile. “We broke up. I don’t have time to deal with his drama.”

“Oh, no…” 

“It’s cool, Terry. I’m fine.” 

“If you’re sure?”

“Yeah. I’m good.” 

“In that case, can we swap playtime duty? I’m not gonna be here tomorrow.”

She shrugged. “Fine… saves me freezing my butt off today.”

Internally, though, Rosa was elated. She wanted to see Gina as soon as possible so that she could explain what had happened with Pimento. It seemed like a betrayal, even though she knew that it wasn’t. Her face fell as she mentally cursed the other woman for messing with her mind so badly.

It was only when she managed to track the secretary down, seconds after morning break started, that Rosa suddenly realised that she didn’t know what to say. Gina looked at her expectantly, one eyebrow raised as she thought about their plan to pretend they couldn’t stand each other.

Not that they’d had any time to put it into action yet seeing as Rosa had gone straight to her classroom after her conversations with Pimento and Terry, not even bothering to make herself a coffee in the staff room, dropping into her desk chair and groaning loudly. Gina had rolled in as the morning bell was ringing, a take-away cup of coffee in one hand and her phone in the other. With a dismissive wave at Holt, she settled herself in front of her computer and proceeded to do no work at all.

So when Rosa tracked her down, Gina was a little surprised. She assumed that Charles was hanging around somewhere and was waiting for the brunette to throw some cutting remark in her direction. Although her step-brother wasn’t immediately visible, something in itself that was suspicious, that was the only explanation the secretary could come up with.

“Did you want something, Ms Diaz?”

“I need to talk to you. In private.”

“M’kay, so when I wanted to talk to you it was an imposition and I was taking up your precious ti–”

“This isn’t part of that.” Rosa cut her off, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of her chair. 

“Ro– Rosa?” The surprise on Gina’s face made the brunette chuckle as she pulled the other woman along the deserted corridor and into their private bathroom and locked the door behind them. “What’s happened?” 

“Do I need a reason?” Rosa asked, trapping Gina between her body and the door, nuzzling the underside of her jaw with her nose before pressing a wet kiss against her skin. “I haven’t kissed you in hours. You were right… we waited too long.”

“Hours? It’s practically been days.”

“Eager much?” 

As Rosa pulled away, a teasing look in her eyes, Gina huffed. “I didn’t say stop. In fact, I’m loving this new use of our Babylon. Oooh! Babylon! I like that.” 

“No. It’s a bathroom. It doesn’t need a name.”

“It does now.” Gina argued lamely, barely managing to stop herself getting distracted by the trail of kisses up and down her throat. “I’m _not_ sending messages telling you to meet me in the bathroom.” 

“OK, whatever.” Rosa clearly didn’t care either way. Instead, she was fumbling with the button on Gina’s jeans.

Throwing her head back against the door, Gina clings on tightly, wrapping one leg around Rosa’s waist and rolling her hips encouragingly. Everything was suddenly in Technicolor since Rosa had burst back into her life. She felt everything more violently.

Then Rosa stopped.

“Wha–? Babe, what the fuck?” Gina complained, irritation sparking in her eyes as Rosa stepped back with an odd expression on her face. “You’ve started something you need to finish!”

“I… I can’t do this.”

Gina’s irritation exploded into wild fury. “You _what_? No! You are not doing this to me. Not again. Not now.” She surged forward, jabbing her finger into Rosa’s chest. “You promised me… you _promised_ me you wouldn’t leave. That was _last night_ , Rosa!”

Shaking her head, Rosa’s face suddenly showed expressions of realisation, embarrassment and fear in quick succession. “No, I… shit!”

“I don’t understand!” 

“This is why… I _told_ you I’m terrible at this. I fuck everything up.” 

“So try talking to me!” Gina ordered her, folding her arms. “You are not running away from me again.”

“I’m not trying to– I don’t want to run away from you, Gina.” Rosa closed her eyes tightly, her hands balling into fists at her sides as she tried to formulate a coherent explanation. “I didn’t mean I can’t do this… I just meant I can’t do this, here, right now. I shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have dragged you in here and tried to fuck you against a door.”

“I wasn’t complaining.”

“Adrian was here.”

“Who?” 

“Pimento.”

“Oh.” Gina’s face registered sudden understanding. She deflated a little. “Him. Why was he here?”

“Wanted to talk.”

“Did you?” 

Rosa shrugged, moving to sit on the closed lid of the toilet. “A bit. He wants me back; said he’ll change.” 

“And?” Gina would rather die than admit it, but she was terrified that the other woman would go back to him. She wasn’t even sure she would be angry with her; Rosa looked so perplexed about the whole situation.

“And what?”

“Are you considering it?”

Rosa tensed. “Do you think I should?”

“Well I… obviously I…”

“No, I’m not.” The brunette said firmly. “No. I don’t want him. I want _you_ , Gina. Now that I’ve ended things with him, I finally feel like myself again.”

Moving to stand between her legs, Gina cupped Rosa’s face gently, tilting her chin upwards. “So _that’s_ what _this_ was about? You dummy. You could have just told me.”

“I was scared you’d…” She trailed off, not really sure what she was scared of Gina doing.

Apparently, though, Gina understood. She sighed, leaning down and kissing Rosa gently. “You’re an idiot, Diaz. I trust you to have a conversation with your ex-fiancé. I’m not completely cray.” 

“I panicked.” Rosa admitted quietly. “I thought… after what I did before… if you saw Adrian or I told you I’d spoken to him you’d think… and you did. That was your first thought.”

“Yeah, because you were acting all weird and you literally said the words, ‘I can’t do this’.”

“I felt guilty. Like not telling you felt like lying. It was lying by omission, I guess.”

Gina nodded slowly. “OK, so… you talked to him and told him… what?”

“That I don’t love him, I don’t want to get back together and that it’s completely over.” Rosa said at once. She held herself back from admitting exactly how she felt about the woman in front of her. “He didn’t want to accept it. He said he knows me and he knows I’d change my mind.”

“Well I know you too, Rosa, way better than he does.” The other woman told her fiercely. “You know better, now. You’ve got Gina Linetti. You’re way too smart to mess this up again. And if you’re not… I am. I won’t let you.”

Rosa bit her lip. “This… this isn’t me. I don’t talk about feelings and shit.”

“I know and I’m so proud of you, baby.”

Surprised to hear complete sincerity – not even a hint of sarcasm – in Gina’s tone, Rosa finally looked up and met her eyes voluntarily. In that moment she trusted Gina completely. Leaning in, she captured the other woman’s lips in a slow, tender kiss. They didn’t need any more words.

* * *

“Ms Diaz?”

Rosa’s eyes widened as she turned slowly to look at the child who had called her name. She’d snuck out of the bathroom – or Babylon, as Gina was now hell-bent on calling it – and successfully walked through the deserted assembly hall and halfway back along the corridor towards the staff room without being spotted. Now, though, she was staring at the small boy as though he’d caught her doing something terrible.

“Uhh… what do you want?” 

“Are you OK? You look kinda… messy?”

With a start, she realised that her shirt was untucked and several of the buttons were done up wrongly. “Fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“OK…” He sent her a strange look. “Mr Jeffords sent me to ask if you could lend him a red marker.”

“Why?” 

“Because… he needs a red marker?” The kid shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“OK. I’ll send one in after break.”

“Thanks.”

The boy jogged away to get outside before the bell rang. Rosa just had time to hastily re-button her shirt, tuck it into the waistband of her jeans and make herself a coffee before the bell rang for the end of playtime.

She pointedly avoided all the eyes that followed her across the room as she moved back towards the door. Amy had clearly told Jake and Charles about the Valentine’s card and yesterday’s drama, but apparently no one had enough guts to ask her about it.

“What?” The word exploded out of Rosa as her hand tightened around the door handle. “What are you jerks all staring at?”

Amy smiled too widely to be sincere. “Uhhh… we were just… Are you OK?”

“Amy told us about the Valentine’s card Gina sent you.” Charles blurted out; completely ignoring the fact that younger woman had spoken. “Have you broken up with Adrian? Is that why Terry saw him here this morning? Are you and Gina getting together?”

“What?” Rosa’s mouth dropped open.

“Charles! Dude, chill!” Jake ordered, looking a little alarmed at the suddenly murderous expression on the Latina’s face. “Rosa, please don’t hurt him; he’s an idiot.”

“Number 1, yes I broke up with Adrian, but my relationship has nothing to do with any of you. Number 2, why the _hell_ would Gina and me be getting together? And number 3, stay the _fuck_ out of my life or I will hunt you down and murder you. One by one. Slowly.” 

She slammed her way out of the staffroom. The windows rattled in their frames as they watched her stalk away, slamming the door to her classroom after her. They could almost see the cartoon thundercloud hanging over her head.

“I told you we shouldn’t ask.” Amy muttered, standing up and picking up her thermos. “You two are idiots.” 

“Hey? What did I do?” Jake demanded, hurrying after her. “I just told her not to hurt Boyle!”

Charles shook his head, thoroughly unfazed by Rosa’s furious response to his questions. “My sister’s gonna get her girl! Another win for the Boyle-Linettis! We are irresistible!”


	9. Chapter 9

Charles soon changed his mind when he walked into the staffroom at lunchtime, just in time to see Gina throw a mug at Rosa’s head and the brunette having to be physically restrained from attacking her by Terry. He squeaked in terror as the brunette’s limbs flailed wildly, still attempting to kick out with the deputy head’s arms clamped tightly around her, but resolutely looked between both parties demanding to know what had caused the situation in the first place.

“Gina made a comment about Pimento being a jerk and Rosa said at least she had someone who loved her and then Gina just… cracked. She let out this scream that wasn’t even words and just launched the mug straight at Rosa’s head.” Jake told him, his eyes wide. There was a broad grin on his face though, as though he’d enjoyed the moment far too much. “I’ve never seen her do that before and I have seen her do some _stuff_.”

“Gina! You’re supposed to be romancing her.”

“Drop dead, Charles.” She snarled at him.

“Butt out, Boyle.” Rosa snapped at the exact same moment. Then she pulled Terry’s arms away from her. “Just… leave me alone. All of you.”

As she stormed away along the corridor, Gina let out a loud huff. “I don’t need this. I’m going out for coffee. Don’t call me, because I won’t answer.”

“Oh my god…” She heard Charles wailing as she strode away. “Gina won’t even answer her phone? This is worse than bad.”

Chuckling, Gina made her way towards Babylon, guessing that was where Rosa had stormed off to. It was lucky that the bathroom was tucked away at the far end of the reception corridor, on the other side of the hall from the main corridor, hidden from prying eyes. Everyone knew better than to follow her or Rosa when they were in that kind of mood, so she was sure they had a while before either were expected to surface once more.

For a moment before she reached her destination, Gina started to doubt herself. Maybe she’d actually upset Rosa? What if she’d pushed her too hard. She hadn’t really planned what she was going to say the first time she bumped into her… girlfriend?... in front of their colleagues. In a move that was the total opposite of her normal style, she’d just said the first thing that entered her head and hoped for the best. Usually her put downs were carefully crafted, but she’d just seen Rosa’s face and blurted out some stupid insult about Pimento. 

The words hadn’t even left her mouth before she’d wished she could take them back. A flash of hurt and betrayal had appeared in Rosa’s eyes and Gina desperately tried to remember what she’d actually said. Then she’d heard the words that were spat at her in return and felt as though Rosa had physically struck her. The next logical move had seemed crystal clear. It was a good job the brunette had fantastic reactions.

“Well that was brilliant, if I say so myself.” Gina announced, letting herself into the bathroom and immediately moving into Rosa’s personal space. She had decided to run with her usual confidence. “I am a damn fine actress. You’re not so bad yourself, baby.”

“Never throw a mug at me again.” Rosa ordered her. “You were so close to knocking me out.”

Gina rolled her eyes. “I have great aim. You were never in any danger.”

“You’re so hot when you’re pretending to be angry on a murderous level.” The brunette ground out, spinning them so that she could press Gina against the wall, pushing a thigh between her legs roughly.

“So we’re good, then?”

“We’re more than good.” Rosa agreed impatiently. “Now shut up and kiss me.”

* * *

Things carried on in a similar vein for a couple of months. No one at Brooklyn Primary had any idea what was happening between Gina and Rosa and they were content to keep it that way. Every now and then they’d stage an argument for their colleagues sakes, which was always followed by a lengthy make-out session in Babylon.

It had been Rosa who took the first step and brought up the question of what they could call their relationship. She had been hesitant of even using the word ‘relationship’ when she initiated the conversation, unsure of how Gina would react.

But Gina had simply stared at her and announced that she’d been referring to Rosa as her girlfriend in her tweets since the night they’d got together. Then she’d laughed at the relief that had seeped out of Rosa’s every pore until the Latina had pushed her down onto the sofa and kissed her heatedly.

“So, uhhh… you know I’ve gotta go on this stupid residential trip on Wednesday.” Rosa started.

It was a Monday evening and they were sitting side by side on Gina’s sofa. The brunette was staring at her laptop screen, trying to finish her planning for the next morning and ignore the distracting way her girlfriend was stroking the nape of her neck as she watched her soaps on the TV.

Gina huffed. “I don't know why Terry can’t just man up and go.”

“Terry’s got three kids under five.” Rosa reminded her. “Sharon put her foot down. Besides, who else was gonna go? Amy?”

They both laughed at that thought, before Gina remembered that Rosa seemed to have been about to ask her something. “What about the stupid trip?”

“D’you think Arlo could come and stay here while I’m away? I would put him in kennels… but he’s like my kid, you know?”

“Well Enigma _is_ my actual kid and she loves your dumb dog, so yeah, he can stay.” Her girlfriend agreed. “But I’m gonna need you to stop working and deal with a problem I’ve got, now.”

“I need to finish this, babe.” Rosa sighed, tapping at her keyboard. “Holt’s doing fifteen minute drop-in observations and I just know he’s gonna hit me tomorrow.” 

“So what? I won’t let him give you bad feedback.”

“Yeah, but I wanna _earn_ his dumb praise. Like… not that his approval means anything to me. But it kinda does.”

Gina let out a sound of abject frustration. “Fine. But how long is it gonna take?”

“I dunno, Gi… half an hour, maybe? I thought you were watching this, anyway.”

“Yeah, but then I realised I have that problem I need you to deal with.” 

“We both know you’re talking about sex.”

Gina rolled her eyes. “Way to kill the mystery, babe.”

A mischievous spark suddenly ignited in her eyes and she moved the hand that was still lightly stroking the skin at the nape of Rosa’s neck up to tangle in her hair. She scratched the brunette’s scalp gently with her nails, leaning closer and pressing a slow, open-mouthed kiss against the bare skin of her shoulder.

“Not going to work, Gi. I’ve really gotta get this done.”

“M’kay, but I’m not doing anything.”

Scooting closer, she continued to kiss her way up Rosa’s neck while the hand that wasn’t in her hair moved lightly up her thigh and dipped under the hem of her tank top for a moment, her fingers splaying against her toned stomach. She felt the muscles twitch and smirked into her girlfriend’s neck while her hand continued its journey up her side until it reached Rosa’s breast.

“OK. Now I’m distracted.” Rosa announced, putting her laptop on the coffee table and pinning Gina down on the sofa in one fluid movement.

She grinned down at the other woman, before leaning down to capture her lips in a heated kiss. Everything else was immediately forgotten and they moved in flawless synchronisation, their bodies moulding together perfectly.

* * *

“Why do you have to go, Ms Diaz?” Louise complained, folding her arms over her chest and frowning at her teacher.

Rosa shrugged. “Because I’m a badass and someone has to keep year six and Mr Boyle in line.”

“Why can’t Mr Jeffords do that?”

“Because he’s _not_ a badass.” She replied, nodding at Holt as he motioned her towards him. “I gotta go. Keep an eye on these dummies for me, yeah?”

The eight-year-old nodded and turned to survey the playground with a determined eye. Rosa nodded fondly – pleased with the way her protégé was shaping up – before heading across to the headmaster. Holt had a clipboard in his hands, which he handed to Rosa as she joined him.

“Everyone is present and correct. I assume you’ve read all the procedures and familiarised yourself with the emergency notification chain?”

“Of course.” 

“Good. Enjoy your three days. I’ll see you on Friday night.”

“Bye.”

Climbing the steps up to the bus, Rosa was immediately hit by the excited chatter of the ten and eleven-year-olds and rolled her eyes irritably. Dropping down into the front seat, she signalled to the driver that he could leave, before jamming one ear bud into her right ear. It was just enough of a distraction from her immediate surroundings, but not too much to cause her to miss any trouble that might occur on the bus. 

“This is gonna be great, Rosa!” Charles enthused from the double seat on the opposite side of the aisle. “We’re gonna have so many cool stories to tell Jake and everyone else when we get back. The only way this would have been better is if Jake had come too, but I get that he has to teach his class or whatever.” 

“Yeah, Jake should have come.” Rosa agreed blandly. “Then I wouldn’t have had to.”

“You don’t mean that.” He told her dismissively. “It’s gonna be great!”

She rolled her eyes and jammed the ear bud in her other ear, not caring whether she missed anything or not. It would be worth it to drown out Charles’ ramblings about Genevieve and Nikolaj and whatever else he was going on about.

“Ms Diaz? Brandon’s been sick.” A voice shouted from near the back of the bus about an hour into the journey.

Turning to look at Charles, Rosa arched an eyebrow. “That is your job.”

“But… OK.” He nodded, “I’ll take one for the team.”

He returned after about ten minutes, looking vaguely green and clutching a carrier bag. Rosa didn’t ask about it and he didn't say anything; simply deposited it on the ground by his feet.

The rest of the journey passed without incident and when they finally drew up outside the activity centre Rosa couldn’t have been more relieved. She climbed off the bus before Charles could even move, striding into the reception area to announce their arrival.

“Hi, I’m Tommy.” The man who greeted her said, holding out his hand for her to shake. Rosa hesitated for a moment, before accepting it briefly. “This is a family-run business. My brother Steve is the cook and Becca looks after the building. If you have any problems feel free to grab hold of us and let us know.” 

She arched an eyebrow, but said nothing about his strange, enthusiastic manner. He reminded her of Charles, but that was not something she wanted to think about.

“Great. D’you want the room assignments or shall we deal with that?”

“We’ll leave that up to you.” Tommy said with a grin. “We’ll give you an hour to settle in and familiarise yourselves with the hostel and then we’ll meet in the main room to talk about the activities we’ve organised for you guys. That sound OK?”

“Yeah, great, whatever.”

Making her way back to the bus, Rosa signalled for Charles to come and talk to the man standing beside her while she spoke to the children. They quietened down immediately as she stood at the front of the bus and whistled loudly.

“Right, you need to grab all your stuff and follow Mr Boyle. If you can’t carry your bags, you shouldn’t have brought so much. I’m not carrying them.” She announced. “Girls first." 

“But–” 

“Don’t start with me, Jason Stentley.” Rosa snapped. “Girls, move it.”

“Can we have a midnight feast, Ms Diaz?”

“As long as no one throws up or complains they’re tired, I don’t care what you do.” She paused. “Actually, no. I do care. Don’t do anything illegal.”

As they all gathered on the gravel driveway with their bags, Rosa nodded to the bus driver and watched as he reversed back down the hill. She had a desire to run after him and catch a ride home, but she knew she had no choice but to stay. It was only two nights, after all. How bad could it possibly be? 

That question was answered about ten minutes later. Rosa had sorted out the room allocations, given the children fifteen minutes to settle themselves in and was just going to find her own room, when her colleague bumped into her, looking as though he’d just won the lottery. She folded her arms, waiting for him to enlighten her on whatever had made him so happy.

“Rosa! Tommy, Steve and Becca are Boyles! Isn’t this amazing.” Charles was positively beaming at her. “I had no idea this place was run by my cousins!”

“Of course there’d be members of the Boyle family here.” Rosa rolled her eyes. “How many freaking cousins do you  _have_ , Boyle?” 

“A lot.” He was almost bouncing with excitement, completely unperturbed by her irritation. “I’ve never even met Tommy, Steve and Becca before! This is great, right?”

“No, it’s awful.” She muttered. “You’re like ants… you get everywhere.”

“Ants?”

“Yeah, ants.”

“Did you know that ants have the ability to carry between 10 and 50 times their own body weight? The Asian weaver ant, for example, can lift 100 times its–”

“I literally couldn’t care less, Boyle.” She informed him bluntly. “I’ve sorted the kids and now I’ve got about twenty minutes to myself, so I’m going to phone–”

Charles interest was piqued when she stopped talking abruptly. “Who? Who are you going to phone?”

“No one.” She cursed herself mentally. “I’m not going to phone anyone.”

“Rosa? Are you seeing someone? Oh my god this is such good news! Everyone is going to be–”

“No.” Panicking, she grasped the front of his shirt and pulled him closer to her. “You are not going to tell anyone.”

“OK, OK, I promise!” He squeaked, holding his hands up in front of him. When she released him, he sighed. “But I am happy for you, Rosa, honestly.”

“Mmm…” She shrugged. “I’m going now. Your room is down there. Stay in it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As some one who's been forced to go on SEVERAL residential trips with 10/11 year olds (including one where I was nearly accidentally pushed me off a cliff) Rosa is completely right to be dreading it. They're literally the worst.
> 
> And the 'I don't care what you do... but don't do anything illegal' is DEFINITELY something I've said before.


	10. Chapter 10

Rosa didn’t get the opportunity to phone Gina after all. No sooner had she located her room – which reminded her of a prison cell – the fire alarm had sounded and she’d jumped into action. Herding the children out through the fire exit, she did a quick head count and nodded to Tommy Boyle to assure him that they were all there.

He had congratulated them on their time, announcing that they’d make it into the top five schools in their fire drill league table. Charles whooped with delight and high-fived his cousins, leading to an eye roll from Rosa and amused muttering from the children in their care.

From there they’d been ushered into the recreation room and split into two groups. Charles’ group were tackling the high-ropes course first with Tommy, while Rosa’s were going canoeing with Becca. To everyone’s immense confusion – apart from Charles – Becca turned out to be a guy. Apparently none of the Boyles saw that there was anything strange about him having a traditionally feminine name, so no one mentioned it.

They’d returned to the hostel after their first activities, to a meal prepared by Steve. Rosa had to admit that being able to cook evidently ran in the Boyle family, because dinner was absolutely delicious, not that she would ever admit it out loud. The children were hyped up on the adrenaline of being away from home and what they’d just done, but, under Rosa and Charles’ watchful eyes, they remembered their manners and behaved appropriately.

As soon as the clearing away and washing up was done – Rosa was astonished to realise that more than half the children had never done dishes in their lives – Tommy announced that they were going on an evening walk. It turned out to be more of a hike, however, with their destination being the top of a nearby mountain.

Finally it was time to send the children off to bed. Rosa didn’t think there was much danger of them having the midnight feast that they’d been asking about, as most of them had been struggling to keep their eyes open when she’d made them hot chocolate and packed them off to their rooms. She had also sworn them all to secrecy about the hot chocolate; determined not to let her image suffer after a moment of softness.

Rosa found a quiet corner and pulled out her mobile, finally getting the opportunity to call her girlfriend. Impatiently, she waited for Gina to answer, huffing when she didn’t immediately pick up the phone.

“Hey, how’s Arlo?” She demanded, hearing a click on the line. 

Gina laughed softly. “Hello to you, too. Arlo’s fine. So are me and Iggy, by the way.”

“I guessed that. I assumed I – along with everyone in the developing world – would have heard by now if you’d broken a nail or something.”

Gina laughed again, not denying it. “So? Whatcha been doing?”

“Eurgh… canoeing, hike up a mountain… it’s been the _worst_. Tomorrow we’ve got orienteering and a high ropes course. I’d much rather be hanging out with you.” Rosa sighed into her phone. She narrowed her eyes as she spotted Charles approaching her. “What are you doing, Boyle?”

“Just brushing my hair.”

She huffed in annoyance at the voice coming from the bathroom. Of course there were at least two Boyles within earshot at all times. “Not you, _Becca_. I was talking to Charles.”

Her friend smiled, holding out a glass in her direction. “I was just bringing you some water.”

“Thanks.”

“So… who’re you talking to? Your mystery hunk?”

“Babe?” Gina’s voice was just about audible through the speaker. “Is everything alright? Are you OK?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll call you back later.” Rosa promised, hanging up quickly.

“Was that a woman’s voice?” Charles asked his eyebrows furrowed in confusion, not getting the hint that he should leave, even though the scowl on his friend's face was thunderous. Luckily, it seemed as though he hadn’t recognised Gina’s voice.

“It’s my sister.”

“She called you babe. When my cousin called me babe you said relatives shouldn’t do that.” He reminded her. “What’s really going on?" 

Rosa clenched her jaw for a moment, weighing up her options. Finally, knowing that he would never let it go, she sighed. “I’m dating a woman. I’m bi." 

“Oh… that’s great. That’s great! Of course Gina was right. Rosa, I just want you to know that I totally support–”

“I don’t wanna talk about it right now, OK? Just… leave it alone, Boyle.”

“By all means.” Charles’ cousin’s voice floated out to meet them again.

“Not _you_ , Becca!”

“OK! I love you!”

Rosa had already stamped off by the time Charles called back, “I love you, too.” 

She walked along the corridor where the children’s rooms were – being met with a silence that indicated they were already asleep – before retreating to the tiny box of a room that seemed to be the only place where she’d get _any_ privacy until they went home. Barking out an order for Charles, who had followed her, to keep an eye on their charges, she redialled Gina’s number, collapsing onto the hard, uncomfortable bed while she waited for her to answer.

“Eurgh… I had to tell Boyle I was dating a woman.” 

“How did that go?”

“He supports me, apparently. And apparently you were right.”

Gina laughed. “I’m always right.”

“I didn't tell him it’s you I’m dating. I don’t think he recognised your voice.”

“I’m unsurprised.” Rosa could almost see Gina shrugging. “He’s oblivious.” There was a pause and then, “Did someone else answer when you asked what he was doing?”

“Yeah… turns out this place is run by Boyle cousins. It’s like my worst nightmare.” She said. “One of them is called Becca… but he’s a dude.”

“Sounds legit… don’t forget about cousin Tina.”

“Fair point.” She sighed, flopping one hand over her face. “How bad is this gonna be? Am I going to have to actually murder Boyle to get him off my case?”

“Which one?”

“Charles, obviously. I’m not against the idea, but it’ll take a bit of effort.”

“Just throw him a fake name and he’ll fangirl himself into a coma.” Gina ordered her, before sighing loudly. “I don’t want to talk about Charles. I miss you… especially your boobs.” 

Rosa laughed and turned the conversation round to a much more pleasurable topic.

* * *

The next day Rosa had to deal with four Boyles, a high-ropes course followed by orienteering, several homesick children and a near miss when Jason Stentley attempted to start a food fight at dinner. She was almost relieved when Tommy announced that their evening activity was a movie in the recreation room. Rosa volunteered to go and make popcorn more quickly than she’d ever volunteered to do pretty much anything in her entire life.

Fumbling with her mobile, she typed a quick text to Gina while she waited for the microwave to beep.

 

**Rosa**

**[How are you guys? Today has been LONG. Can’t wait to get home.]**

**Gina**

**[We’re good. Your dog is fine. Work is terrible without you. Everyone is so boring. Jake and Amy are practically vomit inducing.]**

**Gina**

**[I can’t wait for you to get home either.]**

**Gina**

**[I’ve had a very interesting idea for how I can re-orientate you with my presence.]**

**Gina**

**[And by presence, I mean body.]**

 

**Rosa**

**[You can’t send me stuff like that when I’m here… in this situation. It’s not fair.]**

**Rosa**

**[I want it to be tomorrow already.]**

 

**Gina**

**[*sad face emoji*]**

**Gina**

**[*winky face emoji*]**

**Gina**

**[*kiss face emoji*]**

**Gina**

**[*lips emoji*]**

**Gina**

**[*tongue emoji*]**

**Gina**

**[*female couple with heart emoji*]**

**Gina**

**[*mermaid emoji*]**

**Rosa**

**[You had me at *winky face emoji*]**

**Rosa**

**[Then lost me with the mermaid.]**

 

Smirking, Rosa tucked her phone into her back pocket and shared the popcorn into several small bowls that she found in the kitchen cupboards. Balancing them dangerously in her arms, she carried them in the direction of the recreation room and handed them out, before dropping down on the sofa at the back of the room and pulling out her phone.

 

**Rosa**

**[No weird stuff. I’m in a room of kids.]**

**Gina**

**[I’m never weird. How rude *smirking face emoji*]**

**Gina**

**[OK… how’re the Boyles?]**

**Rosa**

**[Boyle-like. It’s a nightmare. I’m literally counting down the hours.]**

**Rosa**

**[On the plus side, Charles hasn’t mentioned anything about my girlfriend.]**

 

She had just clicked send on the last text when she was aware of someone crossing the room towards her. Glancing up, she grimaced as Charles smiled brightly at her and dropped down into the seat beside hers.

“How’re you doing, champ?”

“Champ?” Rosa whispered back, somehow still managing to sound aggressive. She arched an eyebrow incredulously.

“Thanks for holding the fort down here while I went to speak to Genevieve. It was an adult conversation, if you know what I mean?”

“Eurgh. Gross." 

“So… you can go and call your girlfriend, if you want?” He suggested, doing his best to appear casual. “What was her name again?”

“Nice try, Boyle.”

“Oh, come on, Rosa. I won’t tell anyone.”

“You totally will. You’ll probably have told Jake before I’ve even finished talking to you.”

Boyle had the good sense not to answer that. He merely shrugged and sent her a puppy dog expression that was evidently supposed to make her pity him, but instead had the effect of making her want to punch him in the face. Rosa huffed, folding her arms and sliding down in her seat.

“If you wanted to talk…”

There was something about the way Charles made the offer that caused Rosa to look at him with something other than suspicion. He smiled weakly, jerking his shoulders in an approximation of a shrug and opened his mouth to say something. Almost instantly he closed it again, clearly thinking hard.

“I know I was a little… intense… for a while.” He admitted sheepishly. “I still think you’re insanely beautiful, for the record, but I’m happy with Genevieve now… so happy. She’s the love of my life.” He looked at her sideways, noting the complete lack of emotion on her face. “I just want that for you.”

“I’m happy, Charles, OK? _Really_ happy.” Rosa admitted reluctantly. “Her name’s Tiffany, alright?”

“Is it really?”

“That’s all you’re getting.”

“We can double date, now! You and Tiffany, me and Genevieve.” Charles’ eyes went wide. “No; triple date! You and Tiffany, me and Genevieve, Jake and Amy! No, no! Quadruple date!” Not wanting to hear who he wanted to go on a quadruple date with, she cleared her throat. Apparently that was all that was needed to stop him in his tracks, Charles held up a hand and smiled. “Sorry… got a bit carried away.”

With an almost affectionate smirk on her face, Rosa turned back to watch the movie that was playing for the children. The smile dropped instantly as she realised a couple of the girls were watching her and Charles with interest. As soon as she met their eyes, their heads shot back round to stare at the screen but a soft whispering started up.

“Great…” Rosa muttered, her frown returning. “Now there are a bunch of eleven-year-olds gossiping about me. Perfect.”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s completely normal.” Charles assured her, patting her knee reassuringly. She slapped his hand away and he held it up in surrender. “I forgot the no touching rule, sorry. But don’t worry about them. They love to imagine some great love story between their favourite teachers, especially when they’re both incredibly good-looking.”

“Oh god…” Rosa stared at him in disbelief. “You’ve got this, right? I need to go and… not be here.”

“Sure, sure.” He agreed at once. “You go get her, tiger.”

“Gross.”

* * *

The final day of their trip went without too many hitches. They had time for two activities before they boarded the bus to head back home, so Charles’ group had a go on the climbing wall attached to the front of the hostel, while Rosa’s group tried archery. They then swapped over before lunch and home.

It turned out that Rosa was amazing at shooting arrows at the target, managing to hit the bulls-eye almost every time. Buoyed up by her success, the group were sure that they would win the competition between the two groups as to which was better. In fact, when it came down to it, Tommy Boyle actually looked as though it was painful to him to announce that the winner of the competition wasn’t their cousin, but his colleague. Rosa even let out an uncharacteristic whoop as she accepted the plastic trophy on behalf of her team.

“Suck it, Boyle!” You’re never going to live this down.” She teased triumphantly as they drove through country roads in the direction of the primary school where they could finally hand over their charges. “Team Diaz _totally_ kicked your butts.”

“Ms Diaz?”

“S’up?” She craned her neck to see who’d shouted her name from near the back of the bus.

“My mom said you're engaged. Are you?”

“What?”

“Ms Linetti told my mom that you’re engaged." 

“Are you engaged to Mr Boyle?" 

“What?” Rosa repeated, complete disgust written all over her face. “Gross. No.”

“But are you engaged, though?”

“No.” She snapped. “Conversation over.”

The rest of the journey passed without Rosa saying another word. She refused to even speak to Charles, jamming her ear buds in and staring out of the window.

She had never been more relieved to see the school building looming in the distance. As soon as the bus turned into the car park she was out of her seat and ordering the children to stay where they were until they stopped. At record speed she directed them out to their parents, stopping to do a quick check of the bus before jumping down the steps and striding towards Holt.

“Any mishaps?”

“Nah, we’re all good.”

“Excellent.” He nodded at her. “See you on Monday." 

As he strode away back into the building, Rosa glanced at the time. They’d made good progress and it was earlier than she’d expected to get home. Deciding to surprise Gina, rather than letting her know she was coming, Rosa nodded to Charles and headed for her car. Resolutely ignoring the excitement bubbling inside her, she threw her holdall onto her backseat and jumped into the driver’s seat. 

Her excitement grew the closer she got to Gina’s house. Rosa didn’t let herself think about the fact that it wasn’t just her girlfriend she was excited to see, but Enigma and Arlo as well. She definitely didn’t let herself think about the decidedly domesticated feel to the situation.

Knocking on the front door, Rosa smoothed her shirt and flicked her hair out of her collar. Then she rolled her eyes at her actions and hooked her thumbs through her belt loops, relaxing as she saw Gina’s shadow approaching in the frosted glass of the door. 

“Wha…? Rosie!” Gina screeched with excitement as she pulled open the door and her eyes fell on her girlfriend. No one had ever looked so happy to see her in her entire life and that realisation made Rosa's heart swell with happiness.

And then her arms were around Rosa’s neck and her legs were wrapping around Rosa’s waist and they were kissing and hugging and laughing. Walking them backwards into the house, Rosa kicked the door closed behind them and set Gina down in the hallway. Reluctantly pulling away from her, smiling at the whine that met her ears from her girlfriend, she looked at her in amusement.

“You missed me, huh?”

“You were away for like three months, baby.” Gina replied seriously.

“Where’s Iggy?” 

“Oh… so you don’t even just want me for my body anymore, you want me for my daughter? She is damn adorable, though. I can’t really blame you.” 

Rosa leant in and kissed her. “Sorry, babe.”

“It’s OK, I guess. She’s at her dad’s for the weekend though, so you can leave, if you want.” 

“Not a chance.” Rosa informed her, surging forward and capturing her lips again. “We’re gonna spend the entire weekend in bed, though. That cool?”

“So cool.” Gina agreed, leading her hastily towards the stairs.


	11. Chapter 11

“Morning losers.” Gina greeted her colleagues on Monday morning, entering the staff room and physically pushing Charles aside so that she could make herself a mug of coffee.

“Did you hear? Rosa’s got a girlfriend. She’s called Tiffany.” Charles blurted out before she’d even reached the counter. “How cool is that?”

“I told you to drop it.” The Latina growled out from her seat in the corner of the room, her feet up on the coffee table and her face thunderous.

Gina merely shrugged. “So what? I don’t even know why that’s news to you? I knew she was into women the first time we met. She’s throwing out some pretty clear vibes about 80% of the time.”

“She was engaged to Pimento. She can’t have been throwing out the vibes then.”

“Oh, poor, sweet, naïve Amy.” Gina patted her patronisingly on the head. “She was _especially_ sending out the vibes then.”

Taking her time over making herself a drink, revelling in the silence she’d caused, Gina turned sharply and stalked out of the room, pausing only to sent the smallest of smirks in her girlfriend’s direction. Rosa didn’t even acknowledge the look.

“That’s gotta be a kick in the teeth to Gina…” Amy sighed, looking at Charles.

“Why? Oh…” His eyes widened in realisation of the faux pas he had made.

Rosa stayed quiet in her corner, interested to see how this situation would pan out. The rest of the staff seemed to either have forgotten she was there, or were pretending that she wasn’t. She strongly suspected that they were trying so hard to read between the lines of Gina’s words that they’d forgotten.

“We should set Gina up with someone.” Charles announced decisively.

“Because that went so well the last time you tried it.” Jake reminded him with a snigger.

“But, as she always says, ‘forget your ex, have meaningless sex’. She’d definitely get over Rosa then.” 

“Charles!” Amy glared at him, her eyes finally flicking over to Rosa. 

As they all slowly turned to look at her, Rosa quickly considered her next move. She had two choices as far as she could see; she could either act like she wasn’t bothered or she could kick off.

Climbing to her feet, she shrugged. “Gina can do what she likes… have sex with whoever she likes. It’s nothing to do with me.”

As though to prove her point, Rosa moved towards the sink and started refilling her mug. Screwing the lid on, she took a test sip, before stalking past them in the direction of the door that led out to the corridor.

Rosa paused in the doorway. “Why don’t you try setting her up with that blonde supply teacher that covered Amy that time? The one that looked like ScarJo? She definitely had a thing for Gina. You can probably find her by looking through Gina’s followers on Instagram.”

With that, she strode out of the room and into her classroom. Lifting the lid of her laptop, Rosa realised that there was a sheet of paper tucked inside. She looked at it lazily for a moment, before realising that it was the printout of an email that had been sent to the office email account. It was the sender’s email that really caught her attention and she scanned it quickly, before leaving her classroom again and striding towards the reception area.

“Gina? What the hell is this?” She demanded, her voice shaking slightly.

“Oh…” Her girlfriend looked up from her phone and glanced at the paper. “Yeah, that’s the least creepy, offensive and threatening of the lot.”

“What?” Rosa stared at her. “He’s sent more?”

“Your ex has sent so many emails. Like, _so_ many.” She shrugged a little. “I mean, I thought people were obsessed with _me_ , but this is a whole other level, baby. Like… I’m starting to wonder whether I’m really the MVP in this relationship.” 

“Gina, this is serious. What else has he said?”

“It’s _not_ serious, Ro-Ro.” Gina rolled her eyes. “It’s just a bunch of emails from Pimento saying he’s gonna win you round and that we need to let him come and work here again and that he misses you. Blah, blah, blah.”

“So why did you shove it in my laptop?”

“Because I’m all about the dramz.” She replied casually, already shifting her attention back to her phone. “And also, I didn’t want to ruin our weekend.” Seeing that Rosa still looked worried, she sighed. “Look, I’ve marked his emails as junk and I’ve filed a report with his agency, OK? There’s no way he’s coming back here. I don’t see what more I can do.” 

“OK, fine.”

“We good?”

“Yeah.” Rosa nodded. Then she smirked. “Charles wants to set you up with that ScarJo lookalike that covered Amy.”

“Who?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know who I’m talking about, Linetti.”

“OK, fine. She was really hot.” Gina shrugged, twisting her chair slightly and fixing Rosa with a heated stare, her bottom lip drawn between her teeth. “But I get to make out with someone _way_ hotter whenever I want.”

“ _Whenever_ you want?”

“Mmm-hmm… like, Babylon in ten minutes?” 

“I’ve got a class to teach, Gina.” Rosa reminded her with a soft chuckle. “I can’t just leave them unattended to make out with you.”

“Eurgh… you’re the worst.” Gina muttered, holding up her mobile. “I’ve missed seventeen texts to talk to you – all important – and you won’t even make out with me.”

Rosa chuckled. “I’ll make out with you as much as you want later, OK?”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” They both turned quickly at the sound of Holt’s voice, catching sight of the headmaster staring between them with raised eyebrows. “Ms Diaz, the bell is about to ring.”

“Yeah… OK.”

“Don’t worry, Rosa.” Gina said soothingly. “I’ll sort it.”

Rosa wasn’t sure whether to be reassured or worried as she headed quickly along the corridor to the safety of her classroom. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever thought of the room as a sanctuary before, but that was definitely how she was feeling about it now. This was precisely why she wasn’t a fan of mixing work with pleasure.

Gina, however, didn’t appear particularly bothered at being overheard by Holt. “OK, boss man, here’s the thing; I’m tapping that, but for some reason Rosa doesn’t want everyone up in her business, so we’re keeping it quiet. That cool?”

He blinked several times before nodding slowly. “As long as it doesn’t effect your work, Gina, it is none of my business. Don’t worry, I definitely will not be saying anything about what I heard.” He turned to head into his office. “In fact, I’ll be pretending I did not hear it at all.”

As soon as his door had closed firmly behind him, Gina picked up the receiver of the phone on her desk and dialled the extension that would allow her to speak to Rosa. She waited for her girlfriend to pick up, examining her nails impatiently.

“Class 3?”

“Holt won’t say anything.”

“Good." 

“So… break time?”

“I’ll see you at ten forty-six.” Rosa agreed. Gina could hear her smirk in her tone.

* * *

Rosa demanded that Gina tell her if Pimento did anything else, but time passed and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Holt had stayed true to his word and not breathed a word of his discovery to anyone. No one else had even come close to figuring out that the two women were in a relationship, much to their amusement.

A couple of times Rosa had the strange feeling that she was being watched, mostly when she was out running with Arlo, but as nothing came from it she told herself she was just being paranoid. She did, however, upgrade the security on her house and made sure she checked the doors and window locks regularly. Gina laughed at her, but Rosa knew that it was only because she was trying to stop her winding herself up about the possibility of something bad happening.

June half term was almost upon them and Gina had talked Rosa into agreeing that they should book a cottage at the seaside for a couple of days during their week off. The Latina had complained non-stop, but there was no bite in her words and Gina had come up with an answer for every objection she raised. She had even found a dog-friendly cottage so that they could take Arlo.

“So? What’s everyone doing at half term?” Charles asked on Friday lunchtime.

Rosa huffed loudly, throwing her head back until it hit the top of the chair she was sitting in. “N–”

“Oooh! Lemme see if I can guess what you’re about to say?” Gina cut across her. “Is it ‘none of your business, Boyle’?”

“I was actually going to say none of your _damn_ business, Boyle.”

“Nice addition.” Her girlfriend nodded at her. “Your queen approves.”

“Don’t be a fucking weirdo, Linetti.” Rosa told her with a frown.

“You’ve only just made friends again.” Charles pouted at them. “Don’t fight. Your bond of friendship is too beautiful to be destroyed for a second time. It might not survive.” 

“Eww, Charles!”

“Gross.”

As the two women both protested against his soppiness, Amy looked between them, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. Gina spotted her watching them and decided to diffuse the tension in case her girlfriend gave the game away by punching someone.

“I’m taking Engima to a toddler dance academy.” She announced. “I’ve never seen anyone, myself obviously excluded, with so much natural talent. When she dances she probably makes angels cry with jealousy.”

“Isn’t your kid like six months old?” Rosa frowned at her, knowing exactly how old she was.

“M’kay, she’s almost eighteen months old and that’s the best time to start them on a dancing programme. It’s when they’re at their most mouldable.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s a thing, Gina.” Jake told her with a confused expression on his face.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I forgot about your many years of both dancing and parenting experience, Pineapples.” She sneered at him.

“I took tap for three years.”

Gina merely sent him a pointed look, completely ignoring his comment. “What are your plans, then, Jakey? What thrilling adventures have you got planned?”

“Amy’s booked us a mini-break in a B&B at the coast.”

Rosa’s eyes widened comically at his words, horror filling her expression. “That sounds… awful.”

Jake and Amy looked highly offended by her words. Gina merely snorted in amusement and pulled herself up to sit on the counter in the corner of the staff room by the sink. She launched into a story about something that had tragically befallen her friend Tanya on a mini-break to the coast; ending it with a simpering smile and obviously false assurances that she was sure they’d be absolutely fine. 

“Kevin and I are planning to visit several museums next week.” Holt announced, calmly. Amy immediately turned to face him, resting her chin on her palm as she gazed at him. “There’s an interesting exhibition of Baroque artwork that we’ve been longing to see for quite some time. I’m quite giddy just thinking about it.”

“That sounds wonderful.” Amy said, glancing at Jake. “Maybe we could check it out if we have the chance?”

He didn’t look as though he shared his girlfriend's assessment of the idea, but didn’t argue with her in front of everyone else. Rosa caught Gina’s eye and laughed, almost choking on her mouthful of coffee. When everyone turned to look at her, she simply waved a hand and coughed, standing and moving towards the sink and placing her cup on the counter beside Gina on the surface. The auburn-haired woman shifted slightly, so that when Rosa reached over to grab the coffee jar, Gina was able to cup her breast and give it a firm squeeze without anyone seeing. 

Rosa jumped in surprise, knocking over the coffee jar and sending granules spilling across the counter. Everyone turned to see what the cause of the commotion was, catching sight of a light blush on Rosa’s face. Gina was simply staring at her with a vaguely confused, innocent expression, hiding the smug smirk that was desperately fighting to escape.

“You alright there, Ro-Ro?” She asked lightly. “That was a bit of an overreaction to Boyle saying he and Genevieve are going on a spa weekend, wasn’t it?”

“Huh?” Rosa blinked at her, fire sparking in her eyes. “Sorry… I zoned out for a minute.” 

“What were you thinking about?” Gina asked, a mischievous grin fighting to escape. “Oooh? New girlfriend? New _boy_ friend?” 

“ _New_?” Charles was immediately interested. “What happened to Tiffany?”

Rosa frowned at him. “Who? Oh! Yeah, Tiffany, we broke up ages ago.”

“So? Who’s got you all distracted?” Charles pushed, never knowing when to quit. “So distracted that you spilled coffee everywhere?”

“No one.”

“Oh, come on, Ro-Ro? Don’t shut us out.” Gina teased, earning herself a dirty look for her trouble.

Holt cleared his throat. “If Rosa doesn’t want to talk about this, I think we should respect her privacy.”

“Thanks.” She muttered gratefully, avoiding meeting anyone’s eyes.

“Saved by the bell.” Gina sing-songed as the buzzer sounded to signal the end of lunchtime.

“You’re going to pay for that.” Rosa growled in a low voice as everyone else filed out of the room.

Her girlfriend grinned cheekily at her. “Oh, I hope so.”


	12. Chapter 12

“Why did you look so horrified yesterday when Jake said he and Amy were going on a mini-break to the coast?” Gina asked, standing beside Rosa’s car with Enigma clutched to her hip while her girlfriend unloaded their bags. “There are loads of coasts. It’s _highly_ unlikely that they’re anywhere near here.”

“Yeah. I realised that we are basically Jake and Amy.”

Gina looked traumatised. “Barf. Never say that again. Never!”

“Sorry, babe.” Rosa shrugged, grabbing the final bags and locking her car. “Grossed myself out there, as well. You do owe me, though, for that boob grabbing.”

“I made up for that last night.” Gina reminded her with a wink.

Rosa scoffed. “No chance. You are nowhere near done making it up to me. It was in front of _everyone_ , babe!”

Gina chuckled delightedly at her reaction, leading the way into the cottage they had rented for a couple of days. She still couldn’t believe that she had actually convinced Rosa that they should come. In the end, Gina was sure that it was because there was no wifi – one of her biggest fears – and very little phone service – an even bigger fear – that had made up Rosa’s mind. The knowledge that her girlfriend was willing to sacrifice so much for a few days away with her was bound to have been the reason.

Rosa would never admit to Gina that she would have said yes without the arguments she had put forward in favour of her scheme. She could barely admit it to herself. The idea that she was happy to be staying in a remote cottage with her girlfriend, her girlfriend’s daughter and her dog was so far from what Rosa was used to that she didn’t quite understand what was happening to herself. The most confusing part was that she liked it.

 

**Boyle**

**[How’s your week going so far? Are you with your new boo? What are you doing? *heart-eyes emoji* x]**

 

Rosa pulled a face at Charles’ message, before typing back a quick reply and pushing it back into the pocket of her shorts.

 

**Rosa**

**[I’m with your mom. You don’t want to know what we’re doing.]**

 

**Boyle**

**[… x]**

 

Snorting, Rosa held up the handset so that Gina could read the messages. Her girlfriend cackled delightedly, moving to perch in Rosa’s lap so that she’d see any more responses from her step-brother straight away.

“He’s literally the only person who’d add an ‘x’ to a message that is only an ellipsis.” Rosa pointed out, wrapping an arm securely around Gina’s waist before dropping her lips to her bare shoulder.

 

**Boyle**

**[I’ve just checked with my mom. She’s at her pottery class and you’re not there. x]**

 

Gina positively howled with laughter, Rosa chuckling more at her reaction than the text.

 

**Rosa**

**[That explains why she’s so good with her hands… if you know what I mean.]**

 

“You’re going to give him a heart attack.” Gina said, not remotely bothered about that eventuality.

“He might learn to stay out of my business.”

“Oh, _bitch_ , that will never happen. Charles will never learn. It’s his way of showing he cares.”

Rosa made a noise that Gina translated as meaning that she knew and, actually, she found it kind of sweet. Not that she would ever admit it out loud or stop giving Charles a hard time about it.

 

**Boyle**

**[Rosa!!!! X]**

**Rosa**

**[*woman shrugging emoji* You asked.]**

 

“So, I was thinking… now we’ve settled in we could go for a walk along the beach?” Gina suggested once she’d stopped laughing at the exchange, almost sure that Rosa would immediately shoot her down.

Instead, the Latina shrugged and nodded. “Sounds good. D’you want me to carry Iggy?" 

“You sure?” 

“Yeah… she gets heavy after a while and, let’s face it, I’m in much better physical shape than you.”

Gina’s mouth dropped open in offence and it took a moment for her to register the teasing expression in Rosa’s eyes. “Oh… you little…”

Darting closer, Rosa wrapped her arms around Gina, trapping her arms against her body and pulling her close so that she couldn’t escape. She bent her head and stole a kiss from her lips. Then another.

“You know what? Who wants to go for a walk, anyway?” Gina breathed between their kisses, somehow having freed her arms and wrapped them around Rosa’s neck. 

As though understanding what she was saying, Arlo let out a sharp, gruff bark. In response, Enigma let out an angry sounding shout. There was a split second of silence before Gina and Rosa both started laughing, breaking apart reluctantly. 

“Come on, then.” Rosa went to grab Arlo’s lead and the baby-carrier while Gina lifted Enigma out of the playpen. 

Their walk was pleasant and oddly comforting. They strolled along the sand, hand in hand, with Gina holding the end of the lead and Rosa glancing down every now and then to make sure the sleeping toddler’s hat was in place. She was more than content to listen to Gina babbling on about celebrity gossip and her dance troupe and whatever else popped into her girlfriend’s head. Gina, for her part, was almost bursting with happiness at the sight of the normally passive Rosa Diaz looking down at Enigma with affection and throwing back her head to laugh whenever she made a particularly cutting or hilarious comment.

When they returned to the cottage, Enigma was fast asleep and Arlo also seemed worn out. He had followed them upstairs to the box room, curled up in front of the travel cot and promptly started snoring. Glancing at Gina, seeing the fond expression on her face as she regarded her girlfriend, Rosa rolled her eyes.

“So… we went for a walk,” she started, moving slowly towards Gina, “what do you suggest we do now?”

“Didn’t you start something we need to finish?” Gina reminded her, grasping the taller woman by her belt loops and pulling her flush against her.

Their mouths met hungrily and Rosa wasted no time in pushing Gina backwards in the direction of the bedroom. They collapsed back onto the firm mattress in a tangle of wandering hands and hot mouths. Clothes were discarded hastily until the feeling of flesh on flesh served to heighten their arousal to dizzying heights.

Neither thought they would ever tire of the feeling, the sight or the sounds the other made as they touched, kissed, caressed. It hung, heavy in the air between them. Neither would admit to the other, but they wanted to stay in the moment forever. Never wanting it to end.

* * *

“Did you hear that?”

“What?” Rosa huffed, still half-asleep and not particularly pleased about being woken up.

“There was a noise.”

“Arlo’s not even awake, Gi.” The brunette muttered sleepily, burying her face in Gina’s shoulder.

As if on cue, the Labrador started barking and Rosa groaned. She threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood up, grabbing a t-shirt and some jogging bottoms from the chair in the corner of the room. Following the sound of her dog’s barking, she poked her head around the door of the box room and checked that Enigma was alright. Like her mother, the toddler could sleep through practically anything – although Gina apparently couldn’t sleep through noises, which were probably imagined – and was still slumbering peacefully.

“What’s up, dude?” Rosa murmured to Arlo, scratching behind his ears and looking curiously at the front door, which seemed to be the main focus of his attention. “You know it’s probably just a cat, right?”

Grabbing an umbrella from the stand beside the door, just in case, Rosa opened the door and looked outside warily. There was no one there, as far as she could tell, but beside her Arlo was still growling. Shooting him a curious look, Rosa sighed and closed the door again, wanting nothing more than to be back in bed with Gina.

“Come on, you dumb dog.” She sighed, scratching his ears again. When Arlo refused to move from his position by the door, she shook her head. “Fine, you stay there.”

Gina had almost fallen back to asleep by the time Rosa lifted the duvet and crawled in beside her. She complained as the rough fabric of her girlfriend’s clothes met her bare skin and weakly attempted to remove them. With a huff, Rosa shimmied them off, before wrapping herself around Gina, who gave a soft hum of contentment and pressed a kiss to her girlfriend’s now bare shoulder.

* * *

Their few days at the cottage passed quickly and, although she was loathed to admit it, even to herself, Rosa felt like they had been absolutely perfect. The weather had been incredibly kind to them – both women had taken advantage of the heat to spend their days mainly clad in bikini tops and shorts – and they had simply relaxed in their bubble, far away from everyday life.

“Do we have to leave?” Gina had asked, pouting and leaning against the bonnet of the car as Rosa locked the front door and posted the keys through the letterbox. “Can’t we just stay here forever?" 

“Not really. Besides, I thought you couldn’t wait to get back to civilisation? Didn’t you say something about your followers probably worrying that you were dead?”

Thinking for a moment, Gina accepted the quick kiss that Rosa pressed to her lips, before climbing into the passenger’s seat of the car. “True. They must be getting desperate after being starved of quality content for four days. Are you sure I can’t post any of our pics? Some of them are insanely hot. They may even break the Internet.”

“I’m sure, Gi.” Rosa told her firmly.

They bickered good-naturedly about it for the majority of the journey home, the auburn-haired woman getting more and more sulky as they drove. Rosa found it adorable how Gina was almost offended by her inability to persuade her to allow their photos to be splashed all over her social media, especially when Gina attempted to convince her that it was her public duty to share their happiness with her followers.

“All I’m saying is that when a ten, such as yourself, bags a ten, such as myself, it’s our duty to show the lesser beings what they’re missing out on.” Gina informed her as Rosa parked up on Gina’s drive. “How else will they know what they’re aspiring to achieve? Not that most of them will because, let’s face it, we’re pretty damn hot together.”

“I’m still not going to agree to it.” Rosa said with a shrug, pulling the keys from the ignition and pushing open her door.

They unpacked the car and got Enigma settled on the living room carpet with some toys and children’s TV on in the background. Rosa leant in the doorway watching as Gina spoke to her softly, a smile lighting her face as they both giggled at something Gina had said.

“I’ve gotta sleep at my place tonight.” She said suddenly, making Gina look up at her in surprise.

“What? Why?”

“My Mom and sisters are coming over early in the morning.” Rosa told her, a disgruntled expression on her face as she spoke. “They want to go shopping for a wedding present for my cousin.”

“Oh…” Gina nodded slowly, her unasked question hanging in the air between them.

“It’s not because I’m ashamed of us.” Rosa blurted, knowing what the frown twisting her girlfriend’s features meant. “I just… I haven’t told them yet. I don’t know how they’ll react. I mean I’m sure my sisters will be fine. But my mom and dad are a completely different ball game.”

“I get it. It’s fine.”

“You wouldn’t want to meet them anyway, right?” Rosa asked, trying to justify herself in her own head.

Gina just shrugged. “You know my entire family, Rosa. Even though I haven’t actually told them anything, my mom knows me well enough to be able to tell that we’re a couple, so…”

“It’s not a big deal, babe. I just… it’s not the best time. I need to… prepare them a bit before I introduce you.”

“Whatever.”

Exhaling sharply, Rosa crossed the room and placed her hands on either side of Gina’s neck, the tips of her fingers caressing the soft skin there. “I promise I’ll introduce you to them soon, OK? I just don’t want them to wreck what we’ve got. It’s too important to me, Gi.”

“If you say so.” Gina replied with a cool shrug.

Rosa knew that she wasn’t really annoyed with her and smiled softly, pressing a kiss to her girlfriend’s forehead. It was an oddly momentous gesture and both women froze for a moment before Rosa drew back to look at Gina.

“Well, that was weird.” Gina told her with a smirk.

“You bring it out in me." 

Laughing softly, Gina leant in and kissed her, before pulling away. She smacked Rosa on the ass as she walked towards the door, laughing brightly as the Latina turned and sent her a cheeky wink in response.

Her house seemed oddly soundless without Rosa and Arlo. Enigma was making enough noise that it wasn’t quiet by any means, but it didn’t feel right. Gina busied herself by unpacking their bags and doing the washing, but all too soon she found herself at a loss for something to occupy her. Even social media didn’t seem to be filling the hole her girlfriend had left behind.

* * *

“Rosa!”

Groaning, she dragged herself out of bed and stumbled towards the front door and the sound of her mother’s voice. In her own bed without Gina beside her (or more accurately wrapped tightly around her) Rosa hadn’t been able to sleep for a long time. It was too quiet, too still. She didn’t like it at all.

“Coming, coming…” She called back, walking into the hallway and unlocking the door. “You’re early.”

“No we’re not.” Isabelle argued, pushing past her youngest sister. “We’re exactly on time.”

“Not our fault you overslept.” Elena agreed with a chuckle.

Rolling her eyes at her older sisters, Rosa turned to their mother, preparing herself for the hug and critique of her person that went hand-in-hand with seeing the older woman. Julia tilted her head to scrutinise her closely for a long moment, while Rosa shifted uncomfortably under the knowing gaze, wishing she were wearing something other than her pyjamas. 

“You look good, mija.” She announced finally. “Happy.” 

“I am, Mom.”

“Ooooh!” Elena appeared, sliding round the doorframe from the living room and grinning at her sister. “That sounds like you’ve got news? Are you dating someone new?”

“Uhh…”

Rosa looked between them nervously, trying to work out what to say. From her discomfort, they had realised that Elena was correct about the source of her sister’s happiness, so there was no way they were going to drop the subject. Rosa considered making something up, continuing the lie that she was straight.

But then she remembered the last few days. She remembered the sight of Gina helping Enigma to paddle in the sea. She remembered the sound of Gina’s laughter as Arlo splashed enthusiastically through the waves, soaking them all in the process. She remembered the feeling of snuggling up on the sofa with Gina and Enigma, Arlo at their feet, watching an old black and white film until she was the only one still awake.

Something inside her snapped. 

“Yeah… I’m dating someone new.” Rosa agreed, taking a deep breath. “I’m bisexual. I’m dating a woman; her name’s Gina. She’s amazing and I… I’m in love with her.”

Her announcement was met with complete silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let the drama begin.
> 
> Thank you all for reading, commenting, subscribing and leaving kudos. It means a lot to know you're enjoying this!
> 
> :) :) :)


	13. Chapter 13

“Hey, Rosie, hey…” Gina knelt beside the sofa, taking both of Rosa’s hands in hers and looking up at her with concern. “You _do_ know it’s gonna be OK, right, baby?”

Rosa had almost crumpled the moment her mom had stormed out of the house, her sisters reluctantly following in her wake. Isabelle had sent her a weak, sympathetic smile and Elena had paused to give her a quick hug, before they pulled the front door closed behind them. 

She’d retreated to her sofa and cried until she didn’t think she could cry any more. Then she’d heard a knock at the door and scrubbed roughly at her eyes, going to see who it was with her stomach churning dangerously. Her heart had leapt at the sight of both her parents standing on the doorstep, hoping that her mom had had time to come round to the idea of her being bisexual.

The resulting conversation had left Rosa even more heartbroken than before. Once her parents had left – after telling her that what she felt was just a phase and that she would definitely end up marrying a man some day – she had called Gina. Her girlfriend had immediately dropped everything and rushed over to take care of her.

“I knew it would be bad, but…” Rosa shook her head, tears spilling from her eyes and running in tracks down her cheeks. “The way they looked at me, Gi…”

“They’ll come round, sweetie.” Gina promised, pressing a kiss to the back of her girlfriend’s hand. “It must have come as a shock… I mean they assumed you were straight for all these years, right?” When Rosa just made a muffled sobbing sound, Gina continued. “Besides, no one who really knows you could stay mad at your beautiful soul for long; especially over this. Your parents love you, Rosa. You’re a good person and this is not a reason for them to ever _stop_ loving you. Just give them some time to get their heads around it.”

“I thought Mom would take it better than my dad… that’s why I told her first. I thought it would give me a chance to work up the courage to tell him.”

Gina winced. “Let’s not think about that at the moment, ‘kay?”

“D’you know what made me really mad? The thing that made me want to scream in their faces and throw things?” Rosa almost whispered. When Gina shook her head wordlessly, she sent her a weak smile. “It was the way they completely ignored my feelings for you… as if they weren’t real. As if I could get over you as easily as changing my clothes. As if I could _ever_ get over you.”

“I feel your pain… no one ever fully gets over Gina Linetti.” Her girlfriend teased, but the smile that twisted her lips was completely genuine. She reached out and tucked a curl behind Rosa’s ear. “I don’t think I’d ever get over you, either, though.”

Silence fell for a couple of moments. On her knees on the floor, Gina tried her best to comfort Rosa, pressing her cheek to her girlfriend’s pyjama bottom clad knee and mumbling soothing nonsense. After a while, she felt fingers combing gently through her hair and looked up.

“Thank you for coming over.”

“Anything for you, boo.” Gina said seriously.

“I… do you mind… I think I just wanna be on my own for a bit." 

Gina nodded, reminding herself that this was about Rosa and what she wanted. It was a fairly new concept, putting someone (who wasn’t her daughter) ahead of herself, but Gina knew that she would always do that where the Latina was concerned.

“OK, baby.” She nodded again, leaning forward to press a chaste kiss to her lips. “Whatever you want.”

“Thank you.”

Gina paused. Then she pulled Rosa to her feet and wrapping her in a tight hug. She held the other woman as close as she could, before moving away enough that she could press a long, tender kiss to her lips.

“You know where I am when you’re ready to talk.”

Rosa nodded, watching as Gina left the house, pulling the front door closed with a quiet click. She immediately regretted asking the other woman to leave; the quiet that had prevented her from sleeping properly the night before falling once more.

Deciding to take a shower and try and block out all thoughts that weren’t directly related to everyday, mundane tasks, Rosa trudged upstairs, unable to stop her tears. Never before in her life had she cried so much. She was seriously considering getting her tear ducts smelted shut.

Forcing herself to get dressed late in the afternoon, vaguely making up her mind to go over to Gina’s later, Rosa dropped onto the sofa and stared at the blank screen of the TV for a while. She had half thought that her sisters might have texted her, at least, but the only messages she’d received that day were from Gina, making sure she was OK.

Rosa suddenly steeled herself. It could take her family some time to get over themselves and accept her for who she was. Gina had never _seriously_ judged her and she knew that Gina would never make her feel the way her family had, just for being who she was.

All she really needed was Gina.

A broad grin crossed her face at the realisation. It was so obvious. How it had taken so long for it to really hit her, Rosa would never know. She’d always considered herself to be intelligent, but she had been so stupid. 

A loud knock on the front door made her jump. Something told her that it was Gina on the other side and Rosa couldn’t wait to see her.

“So, Gina rang me and told me how your family reacted to the news about you having a girlfriend.” Jake announced, grinning at the stunned expression on Rosa’s face as she pulled open the door, expecting to see her girlfriend, and instead finding her colleagues crowded around the front step. “We thought your other family should come and cheer you up.”

“Don’t worry, I brought twister.” Charles announced, beaming at her over the pile of boxes in his arms. 

She looked confused as Amy and Terry followed him inside. Even Scully and Hitchcock were in attendance, laden down with bags of snacks. The last two people waiting outside her door were Gina and Holt. Rosa allowed herself to stare at them in open bewilderment, earning a chuckle from the auburn-haired woman.

Pushing past Rosa into her house, Gina shot her a cheeky wink and declared loudly, “You know, in another lifetime you and I would have made a hot ass couple.”

“Agreed.” Rosa said with a smirk, still totally bemused.

“Diaz, you should be very proud of yourself.” Holt told her in his reassuring, gravelly tone. He paused, looking at her with complete sincerity. “I know things aren’t exactly where you wanna be right now, but… I promise you they will improve.”

“Thank you.”

“Every time someone steps up and says who they are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place. So… thank you.”

Rosa was taken aback as he leant in and hugged her tightly.

“Hey… do you seriously only have two wine glasses?” Jake asked, interrupting the moment and causing Rosa to pull back, a little embarrassed.

“Yeah… I live alone.”

“Well, you’re gonna need to get some more because there’s a lot of us here.”

“Thank you for doing this, man.”

“Of course.” He grinned at her. “We’ll be here every week.” 

“Great…”

“Ooh! Is your girlfriend coming?” Amy asked suddenly, earning herself a frown from Rosa. “I’m just… interested.”

“No. Why would she?”

“We assumed she’d be round here cheering you up.” Jake said with a shrug. He draped his arm around Amy’s shoulders. “You should ring her and invite her over.”

“I don’t think so.” Rosa shook her head. “I don’t want you guys to meet her… like this. It’d probably send her running for the hills.”

“We’re not that bad!” Charles moaned, appearing at her side and holding up one of the boxes he had brought with him. “Twister, anyone?”

His suggestion was shot down in flames, practically before it had even left his mouth. Pouting, Charles had allowed himself to be propelled in the direction of Scully and Hitchcock who were playing Cluedo. The idea that they could solve a murder seemed highly laughable, but at least they were enjoying themselves.

Seeing that everyone was engaged in either conversation or competitive board game playing, Rosa headed out into the back garden under the guise of letting Arlo out. She leant against the wall, watching her dog running around on the lawn, her mind hard at work.

“How are you doing with everyone being round here, sweetie?” Gina asked, moving to lean against the wall beside her. She let their hands rest between them, their little fingers linking.

“It’s fine. Thank you for doing this. I didn’t realise how much I didn’t actually want to be on my own.” Rosa told her with a shrug, holding up her mobile. “Besides, I’ve already started looking for somewhere else to live.”

“Or…” Gina looked as though she wasn’t sure whether to say what she was thinking or not. It was a new look for her. “You could move in with me?”

“Uhh…” Rosa hesitated for a moment. “Really?”

“It was only a thought.” Her girlfriend shrugged. “It’s up to you.”

“Are you sure you want me to?”

“Rosa…” Gina turned and fixed her with a hard stare. “I don’t do _anything_ I don’t want to do. You should know that by now.” Leaning in, she cupped Rosa’s face and kissed her quickly. “I want you, Rosa; I want all of you and I want you just the way you are. You’re perfect.”

“You’re going to make me cry again.” The brunette whispered, not trusting herself to speak any louder without emotion cracking her voice. 

“So… is that a yes?”

Rosa nodded. “It’s a yes.”

Gina beamed and Rosa thought she understood what it was like to stare directly into the sun at close range. “Good. Also, you know what they say about having to christen every room in a new house…”

“It’s not a new house?”

“So you don’t want to have sex in every room?" 

“I didn’t say that.” Rosa chuckled, taking Gina’s hand that was closest to her. “In fact, I wish these dummies weren’t here so we could say a proper goodbye to _this_ house.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s definitely a thing too.” Her girlfriend agreed firmly. “It would be bad luck otherwise and I don’t think either of us can afford to offend the universe in that way.” 

“What are you ladies up to out here?”

Rosa jumped at the sudden intrusion. “Boyle… are you stalking me?”

“No I just…”

“For the fiftieth time, Charles, I don’t actually know your mom.” She told him, rolling her eyes. “I was just messing with you." 

“No, I know that.” He nodded vehemently. “I just wanted to make sure you’re alright.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.” Rosa winced, feeling bad about the crushed expression on his face and the knowledge that she was entirely responsible for it. “I’m just a bit… tense.”

“I get it.” He sighed deeply. “When the Boyle cousins were on a trip to–”

“Sorry, Charles, but I’m gonna have to ask you to stop.” Gina interrupted him. “We have not drunk anywhere near enough wine for this story to continue.”

“Oh, OK.”

With that he turned and went back into the house.

“Thank you.” Rosa called after him, taking all three of them by surprise.

Charles turned, fixing her with a deer-in-headlights expression for a moment, before sending them a broad, toothy grin and double finger guns.

Rosa looked at Gina, who was staring after her step-brother with something akin to despair on her face. With a snort of amusement the brunette shook her head.

“What the hell did you ever see in Boyle?”

Gina pouted. “Rosie, he was an outlier, OK? When you put it into context and remember my other relationships with the rock-climbing backpacker, the underwear model, the–”

“Yeah, I remember the big speech, babe.” Rosa laughed, shaking her head at her ridiculous girlfriend. “You’re so weird.”

“Mmmhmmm… so what does that make you, then?”

“When you’re looking at me like that, it makes me want to rip all your clothes off and fuck you right here against this wall.”

“Well I’m not stopping you.” Gina said in a low voice, shooting her a look that almost broke Rosa.

“Eurgh…” She groaned, leaning her head back against the bricks. “When are these jerks leaving?” 

“Doesn’t matter.” Her girlfriend ground out in a low voice.

She tightened her grip on Rosa’s hand and pulled her around the corner of the house, pushing her up against the wall and crashing their mouths together. Rosa hissed with a mixture of pleasure and pain as Gina’s nails dug into her arms, flipping them and pressing her against the rough brickwork.

“Perfect.” Gina breathed, biting down on the flesh just beneath the collar of Rosa’s shirt. “You are perfect.”

Inhaling sharply, Rosa let her eyes slip closed, believing what the other woman was telling her. She just wanted to let herself get lost in Gina. It would be so easy.

“Gi… we should tell them.”

Gina looked at her, completely outraged. “Now?”

“Well… not _now_ , now.” Rosa shook her head vehemently. “At some point, though.”

“Good, because I’m nowhere near done here.” Gina informed her, tangling her hands in dark curls and pulling Rosa’s mouth to meet hers once more.


	14. Chapter 14

“I’ve got a delivery for a Gina Linetti?”

A bright smile crossed the secretary’s face as she realised the package the deliveryman had placed on the counter was for her. Signing eagerly, she stabbed at the box with a pair of scissors and ripped into it. She was immediately hit by a wall of fragrance from the bright bouquet of flowers inside.

Her hand curled around the small, silver envelope nestled between the blooms and she drew her bottom lip between her teeth as she thought about the woman who must have sent them. Reading the note quickly, her suspicions were confirmed and she let out a quiet squeal, warmth radiating in her chest.

**_'Gi, I know I struggle to express my feelings, but you are so special to me. Thank you for sticking by me. Let me take you out for lunch. I’ll meet you on the corner by the post box at 12:20. R.’_ **

Glancing at the time, seeing that it was just before eleven, Gina realised that all the children would be out at play and she had a couple of minutes to speak to Rosa about the gift. It was strange, the brunette hadn’t mentioned anything about lunch and Gina distinctly remembered her putting a Tupperware of leftover pasta from their dinner in the staff room fridge that morning.

“So, while I obviously approve of you spoiling me and showering me with presents that I completely deserve at every opportunity, you’re gonna have to cool it a little at work or even those dummies are going to figure something out before we break the news.” Gina announced, entering her classroom and perching on Rosa’s desk. She purposefully blocked the view of the maths book she’d been marking in order to gain her full attention. “The massive bunch of flowers is kinda hard to hide.”

“What are you talking about?" 

Holding out an envelope, Gina watched carefully as her girlfriend slid the card out and read it quickly. She followed Rosa’s eyes as they scanned the words, surprised to see confusion clouding the other woman’s face.

“Gina, this isn’t from me.” Rosa told her seriously, looking up from the note in her hands. “I didn’t send you flowers.”

“What? Of course it’s from you? No one else would send me something like that.” She chuckled lightly. “You are literally the _only_ person I let call me Gi. Even Jake knows better than to try it.”

“I swear I didn’t write this, babe.”

“So… who?” Gina’s eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the note. It was typed so there were no clues there. “I guess I could ring the florist and see if they can tell me who sent them…”

“Are you telling me there might be someone I have to fight for your attention?” Rosa asked, a suggestion of irritation clear behind her humour. “Could it be Milton?”

“What? No, of course not. You’re my one and only, Rosie. Besides, why would he suddenly start sending me flowers, now?”

“Well who else could it be?”

“Maybe it’s finally happened?” Gina murmured, her eyes going comically wide. “One of my many online followers has finally decided to murder me. Don’t let me be forgotten, baby. Keep my memory alive. Turn my tweets into a book.”

“Don’t be an asshole.” Rosa told her bluntly, not even wanting to think about that possibility. “It’s not one of your followers. It’s probably a mistake. Don’t worry about it.”

“But the corner with the post box…”

“Obviously you’re not going. Are you?”

Gina shrugged, looking disinterested. “Well if you don’t think it’s anything to worry about… what’s the worst that could happen?”

“Have you not watched TV or films before in your life?” Rosa asked, frowning. “ _Nothing_ good can come of this.” 

“Why don’t you come with me, then?”

“Why don’t you just not go?”

“Because I want, nay, I _need_ to know!” Gina told her, placing one hand on either side of her face and leaning close. “I need to know, Rosa! If you don’t come with me, I’m gonna go anyway, OK?” 

Letting out a frustrated huff, the brunette nodded. “Fine, I’ll come with you and stop you being dismembered by some weirdo.”

“Ahh, you say the sweetest things.”

“Whatever.”

“I’m just gonna pretend those flowers are from you, then, OK?” Gina informed her with a shrug. “There’s no one else I want flowers from, anyway.”

As she turned and headed from the door, Rosa dropped her feet from the desk and jumped out of her chair. She reached out, wrapping her hand around Gina’s wrist and pulling her round to look at her.

“If you really want to see who sent them, I’ll come. But please don’t go without me, Gi.” She requested softly.

“I _can_ handle myself, Rosie.”

“I know you can… but I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”

Gina’s eyes softened as she heard the sincerity in her girlfriend’s words. “Hey… I’m not going anywhere, baby.”

“Not without me you’re not, no.” Rosa agreed with a smirk. “We’ll go together, alright?”

The lesson between break and lunch went painfully slowly. Several times Rosa’s class had to attract her attention because she zoned out, staring into space and imagining all sorts of scenarios that might befall her and Gina at lunchtime.

“Ms Diaz?” Louise called from her table, when Rosa trailed off mid-sentence with her pen hovering in front of the board. “Are you drunk?”

“What?” She whipped round and scowled at the girl. “Of course I’m not drunk. That’s a totally inappropriate question and your final warning.”

“So why are you acting all… weird?”

“Is it boy troubles?” Erin asked, propping up her chin on her hand. “My sister Paige failed a maths test last week and my mom said it was because she was having boy troubles.”

“Yeah, it’s definitely not that.” Rosa told her firmly. “You’re supposed to be identifying the features of persuasive letters. So, you know, do that…”

Dropping the pen on her desk, Rosa sat down heavily and stared at the clock on the opposite wall. She had twenty minutes to kill until the bell rang for lunchtime. Her class were looking at her oddly, whispering amongst themselves, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. Rosa chewed the inside of her lip, wishing that Gina wasn’t so determined to find out who had sent those flowers and wanted to meet her. There was no way this was going to end well.

Finally the buzzer sounded. Although she’d been waiting for it to happen, the noise still startled Rosa out of her daydream. She snapped at the children to tidy up and get ready for lunch, before impatiently ushering them out of the classroom. It was already eighteen minutes past twelve and Rosa wouldn’t have put it past Gina to disregard her request and go on her own anyway. 

“Oh, good, you’re here.” Gina beamed as Rosa walked into the reception area exactly one minute later. “We’re already gonna be late so we should get going.”

“Gi… are you _sure_ you want to do this?”

“Damn, Rosa. Anyone would think you were worried I was gonna run off with whoever sent those flowers.” Gina said, smirking at her. “You should know by now I’m off the market, boo.”

Shaking her head, Rosa led the way out of the main entrance and strode in the direction of the post box on the corner. Gina bounced along beside her, jabbering on about nonsense as she checked her various social media accounts for any clues as to who they might encounter.

They waited on the wall opposite the post box for about twenty minutes. Gina was filled with excitement that rapidly turned to boredom and frustration, while Rosa’s whole body vibrated with pent up tension. No one approached them as they waited; two sets of eagle eyes peeled and observing the situation for anything out of the ordinary.

“I told you this was pointless.” Rosa muttered finally, standing and stretching her stiff limbs.

“Eurgh… you give up so easy, Diaz.” Gina shot back. “We’ve got ages before we need to go back to work. Maybe they’re running late? Maybe they’re dazzled by my beauty? Maybe they’re–” 

“Shut up, Gina.”

“That reminds me, we need to go shopping on the way home.” 

“How did me telling you to shut up remind you of that?”

“Because when I said it last night you also told me to shut up.”

“I was a bit busy at the time.” Rosa reminded her with a smirk. “My mouth was preoccupied with other things.”

“Oh, yeah…” Gina’s eyes glazed over slightly and a satisfied smile twisted her lips as she remembered exactly what Rosa’s mouth had been doing at that moment.

“So can we leave now?” 

Letting out a dramatic sigh, Gina nodded and slid off the wall. “Look’s like they’re not coming. Maybe you scared them off with your terrifying, beautiful face?”

Rosa shook her head, a smirk twisting her features. Glancing around quickly, she tugged Gina towards her using a hand fisted into her jumper. They paused for a moment, merely smirking at each other, before Gina closed the gap and pressed her lips against Rosa’s.

When they pulled back, Gina fixed her with an expression that Rosa knew she called ‘Sparkle Surprise’. “What if someone saw us kissing, baby? Should we assume new identities and move to Argentina?”

“Shut up, Linetti.” Rosa ordered, leaning in and kissing her again.

When they appeared back in the staffroom, everyone was curious about where they’d been. Rosa gave a standard, blunt, uninformative answer, while Gina launched into a long, rambling story about seeing someone she thought she recognised off some obscure reality show. By the time she had come to the end of her tale, no one was really sure what she had actually been talking about, so no one made any comment.

“So, Gina, you never replied to the message in the family group chat about whether you’d be coming on the Boyle-Linetti summer holiday.” Charles said, apparently trying his best to appear causal as he slipped into the seat beside hers. “We promised Nikolaj we’d go to Disneyland this year. I’m sure Igg–” he hesitated at the look she shot him, “Enigma would love it too.”

“I don’t know, Charles. I don’t think a murder-suey would be great for the advertising.” She shrugged. “That is almost definitely how that trip would end.”

“Milton’s _really_ excited about the idea.”

The tone of Charles’ voice suggested that he was attempting to entice Gina into agreeing to the holiday, but the expression of distaste on his face indicated how he really felt about the prospect of that particular Boyle cousin joining them. Rosa felt a wave of jealousy rise up inside her, even though she knew that Gina had absolutely no interest in Enigma’s father; even as a human being.

“So?” 

“It would be a real family trip. Our parents, Me, Genevieve and Nikolaj, you, Milton and Enigma.” 

“Eww.” Gina frowned at him. “Firstly, no. Secondly, eww. Thirdly, no, again.”

“Oh, come on. You two make such a cute couple. You really should get back together. Milton was just telling me the other day how much he misses you and wants you back.” Charles continued, seemingly unwilling to give up until he got his own way. “You’re perfect for each other.”

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Hard pass.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Gina saw Rosa shifting in her seat. There was a dark expression on the brunette’s face, her lips downturned into even more of a scowl than normal. Suddenly, smugness settled over Gina as she realised the cause of her girlfriend’s sudden bad mood. 

Rosa was definitely jealous.

“On second thoughts,” Gina cut across whatever Charles was saying to try and get her to change her mind, “Milton is by _far_ the hottest of the Boyle cousins and we did make a sexy couple, so what the hell. It would be cruel to deprive him of the chance to bask in my brilliance.” 

A quiet, strangled sound from the vague direction of her girlfriend made Gina grin, but she forced her gaze to remain steadily on her step-brother. Charles looked as though he was absolutely beside himself with excitement and immediately began talking about flights and bookings and promising to email her details as soon as possible.

As the end of lunch buzzer sounded, Gina sauntered casually out of the room as Terry reminded everyone about the end of year reports they were supposed to be nearly finished writing, leaving Rosa silently stewing in her corner and Charles excitedly planning for the summer. She grinned to herself, thoroughly enjoying how affected her girlfriend was by her pretence that she had any intention of letting Milton anywhere near her.

Chuckling to herself, she dropped into her chair at the reception desk and opening up the office emails. Gina sorted through the crap, forwarding a few important emails to Holt or whoever they concerned, before opening one that had her own name in the subject bar. She was too intrigued to even check who had sent the message.

“Shitty school Internet…” She muttered as the picture that had been sent failed to load on the first attempt. “This better be worth… oh _damn_.”

Her eyes widened almost impossibly as the photo finally appeared on the screen. It was an obviously covert shot of her and Rosa while they’d been waiting for whoever had sent the flowers to show up, taken from somewhere on the other side of the road. There was no chance of mistaking what they were doing; if the angles and proximity of their faces didn’t give it away, Gina’s hands on Rosa’s ass definitely did.

“Rosa is gonna fucking flip…” She muttered.

Wanting to get it over and done with, Gina picked up the phone from her desk and dialled Rosa’s classroom. She waited impatiently until the other woman answered, sounding vaguely harassed, before blurting out that she needed to she her in the office urgently. Rosa had attempted to blow her off, until Gina repeated that it was _urgent_.

Rosa clearly thought the call was just some ruse to get her alone in the office, because she strode into the room and stood with her hands on her hips and one eyebrow raised. After staring at Gina for a couple of moments, she finally understood why her girlfriend was pointing at the computer screen and leant closer to get a better look.

“Fuck!” She straightened and folded her arms, a thunderous expression on her face. “Who sent it?”

“I don’t know.” Gina shrugged. “I tried sending back a threatening email, but it bounced.” 

“What the hell, Gina? I told you we shouldn’t go!” 

The other woman rolled her eyes. “This has got to be Pimento, right? I mean, he said he’d be watching you, or whatever. He’s definitely creepy enough to do something like this.”

“Maybe it was Milton?” Rosa snapped back. “He’s clearly obsessed with you seeing as he’s been talking to Charles about some crappy family holiday and how much he wants you back.”

“I _knew_ you were jealous!” Gina crowed triumphantly. 

“I am _not_ jealous.” The brunette ground out between gritted teeth. She was jealous and she knew it. So did Gina. “You can do what you want.” 

“Really? So you wouldn’t be _at all_ bothered if I went to Disneyland with my daughter and her father?”

“No, why would I?” 

“Made all those memories? Shared a room? Shared a _bed_?” 

“Shut up.” Rosa glared at her. “We’re supposed to be figuring out who sent that email.”

“What does it even matter?” Gina sighed, flapping a hand at her and focusing back on the screen of her mobile. “So what? They saw us kissing and took a photo like a complete weirdo. It was probably just a parent or something. It’s not like we were doing anything wrong; we were off school grounds in our own time. Besides, you said you wanted to tell everyone.”

“Not like this!” 

“Not at _all_ , more like it.” 

“Gina, you’re being ridiculous!” 

“Don’t you have children to teach?” The secretary asked pointedly, twisting her chair so that she had her back to her girlfriend. “I’ll speak to you later.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's all about to kick off...

“Come on, Rosie!” 

“Gi, babe, honestly I’d love to.” Rosa sighed, not raising her eyes from her laptop screen. “I’ve got to get these reports finished, though. Holt wants me to send them to him by Monday so that he can check them over and make suggestions.”

“Parents don’t care about their reports!” Gina huffed. “Half of them don’t even read them. They just wanna know if their kid is doing well or not. Don’t stress about it!”

“I know that, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve gotta waste hours of my life doing this anyway.”

“Just a little break, Ro. We can take Iggy and Arlo to the park and get some fresh air.” Gina suggested. “It might make that big old brain of yours work better.”

Rosa let out a long sigh. “Sorry, babe. I really can’t.”

“Is this about yesterday? Are you still pissed off that I pretended to consider getting back with Milton?”

“No, of course not. You were right; I was being stupid.”

“Ro…”

“Gina, I can’t, OK? I really need to get this done.”

Her girlfriend huffed petulantly. “Fine, we’ll go without you. You can stay here and be boring without us.” 

As she flounced away, the Latina leant back in her seat and closed her eyes tightly for a moment. She sighed and cursed the amount of time her job took up for what felt like the millionth time that day. The sounds of Gina getting ready for a trip out with her daughter reached Rosa’s ears as she stared at the boxes on the laptop in front of her and she wished she could just shut the lid and forget about it.

The next thing Rosa knew, the front door was closing with a bang and she was left alone in the house. Standing quickly, Rosa went to look through the window and caught sight of her girlfriend with her phone pressed against her ear, just before she rounded the corner with Arlo and the pushchair.

“Fuck’s sake, Gina.” She muttered, knowing that the other woman was sulking. 

Trying to get any work done after that proved impossible. Rosa stared blankly at her laptop, reading the same sentences over and over again without taking them in. Then she gave up and slammed the lid. She paced the house for a while, trying to decide whether to go and meet Gina or not; trying to work out what kind of reception she’d receive if she did.

Finally, Rosa grabbed her jacket and headed out of the house. She strode quickly in the direction of the park, pushing through the wooden gate and spotting the climbing frame in the distance. Jamming her hands into her pockets, Rosa approached slowly, smiling at the sight of a figure on the bench bouncing Iggy on her knee while Arlo lay at her feet. It was only when she realised that the woman sitting on the bench was Darlene, rather than Gina, that Rosa realised something was wrong.

“Darlene?” She tried to keep her voice even, not wanting to overreact. “Hey?”

“Oh, hi, honey.” Gina’s mother smiled warmly at her. “Gina said you were working.”

“Yeah… I couldn’t concentrate after she left.”

“You obviously needed the break.”

“Mmm… where is Gina?” She looked around, trying to be casual. Something about the situation wasn’t sitting right inside her.

“She had a phone call and asked if I’d watch Enigma while she answered it.”

“Oh…” The unsettled feeling inside Rosa intensified as she scanned the field for a glimpse of her girlfriend.

“That was a while ago, though.” Darlene admitted, her eyebrows furrowing in a light frown. 

Biting her lip, Rosa pulled out her mobile. “I’m gonna try and call her…”

Clamping her phone to her ear, she walked a little way away from Gina’s mother so that she wouldn’t be overheard and waited impatiently for the call to be answered. Relief surged through her as she heard it connect, murmuring Gina’s name almost desperately. Her relief turned to fear as she listened to the hushed response. 

“Rosa? I… please help me.”

“What’s wrong?” Rosa demanded immediately. There was fear in her girlfriend’s voice, but there was something else, too. Rosa was terrified to realise that it sounded a lot like pain. “Where are you, Gina? What’s happened?”

“I don’t know…”

“What?”

“I had a call… it was Pimento. He wanted to talk and I… I thought I could handle him.”

“Gina…” Rosa breathed fearfully. “What the hell did he do to you?”

“Hit me with something… grabbed me… pushed me into a van…”

“OK, OK… I’m gonna find you, babe. I promise.” 

“Hurry, please…”

“I will, Gina. I’ll be there before you know it. Keep your phone on you.”

“I love you.”

Before Rosa could respond, there was a click and the line went dead. She ran one hand through her hair as she swiped at her screen until she found the ‘find my iPhone’ app. Swearwords tumbled from her lips as she typed in Gina’s details and waited desperately for some hint as to where her girlfriend was. 

It only hit her that Gina had told her she loved her as she was heading back across the grass to the play park. She’d known it, of course she had, just as Gina knew that Rosa loved her. It was obvious. But neither of them had actually said the words out loud before. Rosa forced down a sob, refusing to acknowledge the idea that Gina might never get to hear her say it.

“Darlene? Can you watch Enigma and Arlo for a bit?” She requested urgently, doing her best to hide her terror and not alert Gina’s mother than anything was wrong. “Gina’s convinced herself she’s spotted some reality star and wants to go stalking.”

The older woman laughed, easily believing the lie. “Sure, sweetie. You go and keep my daughter out of trouble.”

Smiling weakly, hoping she could do what Darlene was requesting, Rosa started striding in the direction of their home. She’d picked up Gina’s location through the app and was watching the tiny icon moving through the streets. She couldn’t believe what was happening; people didn’t get kidnapped by their girlfriend’s exes in real life. That only happened on TV and in films.

Breaking into a run, Rosa chose a number in her contacts list and held her phone to her ear, begging whatever deity might be looking down on her that the call was answered. To her immense relief, there was a pause and then a confused voice saying her name. 

“Terry, thank god. I need your help.” 

“Is this about the reports, Rosa, because I can’t get Holt to extend–”

“No, no!” She shook her head. “I need… I need you to believe what I’m about to tell you, OK? And don’t ask dumb questions. Pimento’s kidnapped Gina. We need to get her back before…”

“Before what?” Terry gasped audibly. “You think he’d do something to Gina?”

“I… I don’t know.” Rosa admitted, slowing to a jog as she neared the house, fumbling in her pocket for the key to her motorbike. “I have no idea what he’ll do.”

“Hang on… how do you know he’s–?”

“No dumb questions, remember? Look… I know where she is. I’ve traced her mobile. I’ll send you a screen shot. Can you meet me there?”

“What have the police said?” 

Rosa paused. She hadn’t even considered phoning them. “I haven’t–”

“You phone the police and I’ll phone Jake.”

“No!”

“He’d want to know, Rosa. Gina’s practically his sister.”

“Fuck’s sake…” She kicked the front tyre of her girlfriend’s car in frustration. “Fine. I’ll phone the cops, but then I am going to find her. It’s up to you whether you come or not.”

“Send me the picture, Rosa.”

Hanging up, she did as he’d requested, before dialling the number for the emergency services. After outlining the situation to the man on the other end of the call, Rosa checked the location of Gina’s mobile again and jumped onto her bike.

She didn’t have a clear plan in her head. All Rosa knew was that she wanted to get to Gina before anything happened to her. Guilt crashed over her in waves as she drove towards where the icon had stopped moving, blaming herself entirely for what was happening. If only she’d gone with Gina when she’d asked, Pimento wouldn’t have had the chance to get to her. 

Her destination was a scrap yard on the very edge of town. There were several large warehouses, each with piles of metal and other rubbish piled around them. A van was parked up next to the furthest building on the left and Rosa guessed that was where she would find Gina.

Not thinking twice about her own safety, she headed for the warehouse at a sprint. The door at the front was locked, not budging as she yanked on the handle with all her strength, so she focused her attention on finding another way in. All the while her heart was pounding painfully in her chest and she could taste the metallic tang of iron in her mouth from where she was biting the inside of her cheek so hard. Her only thought was getting to Gina.

A string of expletives burst from her as she found a second door around the back of the warehouse, only to realise that it was padlocked. Looking around desperately, Rosa spotted a broken window in the door at the top of a fire escape and climbed it hurriedly, taken two steps at a time. She didn't stop until she had kicked the remaining glass fragments out of the frame and forced her way inside, not noticing the cuts she received in the process.

Inside the warehouse it was dark. Rosa took a couple of moments to let her eyes acclimatise to the change in light levels, before making her way carefully down to the lower level. The platform and steps were metal and it was impossible to move without her boots making any sound. Anxiously, she rounded a pillar and looked across the expanse of the warehouse floor. On the opposite side, in front of the shutters, was a figure slumped over on a chair.

“Gina…” She breathed, before taking off at a run.

In the cavernous warehouse, Rosa’s footsteps echoed like thunder. She didn’t care though. She didn’t care about anything but getting to the woman on the other side of the space that suddenly seemed to be miles wide. Gina flinched visibly, letting out a small sob of terror at that sound, clearly wondering what was happening. 

“Gina!” Rosa breathed as she skidded to a halt in front of the chair. “Babe, it’s me. Oh my god, Gina. Are you OK?” Her eyes took in several cuts and bruises clearly visible on her girlfriend’s face and rage bubbled up inside her. “What the hell did he do to you?”

“Rosa?” 

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me…” The brunette was fumbling with the ropes tying her girlfriend’s arms to the chair. Giving up momentarily, she gently removed her blindfold and found herself staring into watering baby blue eyes. “Babe…”

Gina sobbed openly and Rosa didn’t know what to do. She leant forward and pressed a quick kiss to her lips, before returning her attention to the ropes. They were tight and she couldn’t undo them, her frustration rising the longer she tried. 

“Shit, shit, shit…” She repeated over and over again, unable to make any headway with the knots. 

“Rosa!” Gina’s terrified voice caused her to look up, meeting her eyes. “He’s…”

“OK, babe… it’s OK.” Rosa murmured, smiling at her reassuringly. When Gina still looked petrified, she shot her a wink. “It’ll be OK.”

Rosa’s entire body tensed as she listened to the footsteps crossing the concrete behind her. She waited until the steps stopped and she felt the presence of someone just behind her. Taking a breath, she straightened up and stood for a moment, gaging where he was before she acted.

Whirling round, she lashed out, her fist slamming into with Pimento’s stomach. When he gasped, doubling over, she brought her knee up quickly. It connected with his nose, a sickening crunching sound telling her that it was definitely broken. As he let out a sound like a wounded animal, Rosa shoved him hard in the chest.

“What have you done to her?” She demanded, her voice low and threatening. “If you’ve touched a single hair on her head I swear I’m going to rip you into little pieces with my bare hands.”

Spotting something glinting in his belt, Rosa squinted and the realisation suddenly hit her that it was a knife. Not considering anything other than freeing Gina, she hastily formed a plan in her mind, not really thinking any of it through properly. With a triumphant sound Rosa lurched forward, determined to get hold of the knife and use it to free her girlfriend.

Rosa’s hand tightened around the handle and she yanked upwards to free the weapon from the belt. She didn’t anticipate Pimento regaining the ability to fight back so quickly and so, when he grabbed her by the hair and pulled, there was nothing much Rosa could do to stop herself staggering sideways.

“Rosa!”

Gina’s cry distracted her momentarily, but it was enough to allow Pimento the opportunity to gain the upper hand. He grabbed Rosa by the throat, seemingly unaffected as she clawed at him desperately trying to free herself. Behind Pimento, the brunette could see her girlfriend screaming, but she seemed to have lost her sense of hearing. In the struggle, they overbalanced and crashed to the ground, him landing on top of her with his hands still clamped around her neck.

As he squeezed on her windpipe the edges of Rosa’s vision started blurring into blackness. There was a sharp pain in her side, but she couldn’t even gasp in response. Even as her mind told her that she was probably going to die, the only thing Rosa could think of was Gina. 

Gina, who was trapped in that chair. Gina, who she’d so desperately wanted to save. Gina, who was helplessly watching the scene unfolding without being able to do anything. Gina, who probably thought she was going to be next. 

Gina, who was everything to Rosa.


	16. Chapter 16

“Yeah, mom, I know.” Gina rolled her eyes as Darlene lectured her about cutting Rosa some slack. She was starting to regret asking her to meet them at the park.

“I don’t think you do, though, honey.” Her mother continued, taking no notice of the childish pout on her face. “You’ve got yourself a good one, there. Storming out because she has work to finish is just going to push her away. You have a child, Regina, stop acting like one.” 

“Mom!”

“You love that girl and you are going to lose her if you keep acting like a spoilt brat!”

“I’m not acting like a spoilt brat. I didn’t ask her to quit her job, I just asked her to come to the park with us.”

“She can’t just drop everything because you have a impulse to go out. She’s got responsibilities. As have you, Regina.”

“Fine!” Gina whined, knowing she was right but not wanting to admit it. “I’ll call her, OK. _God_.”

As she waved her mobile at her mother sulkily, it started to ring. Thinking that it was probably Rosa calling to apologise to her, a smug smirk twisted Gina’s lips. When she realised that she didn’t know the number flashing on the screen, the smile dropped. Glancing at her mother, she motioned that she was going to move away to take the call, Gina headed out of the play park in the direction of the road.

“Who dis?”

“It’s Adrian. Pimento. I need to talk to you… about Rosa.”

Gina sighed deeply. “Listen, loser, she’s just not that into you, OK?”

“No, Gina, please. I’m by that park near your house. You know… the one you take your kid to.”

At his words Gina froze. His tone was light, but she could sense the threat behind his words. Gina Linetti was a master at veiled threats.

She considered her words carefully. “Where are you?”

“In the phone box.”

“Why are you _in_ the phone box?” Gina asked, unable to help herself. “The year is 2018, you know. Who even uses phone boxes anymore? Are you actually ninety-five? Is _that_ why Rosa dumped your ass?”

Stepping through the gate onto the street, Gina looked along the road towards the phone box. There was a figure inside it and she sighed, rolling her eyes as she started walking towards him. It was broad daylight on a vaguely busy street; there was no way Pimento would try anything in such an open location.

Drawing closer to what she thought was Pimento, Gina stopped dead when she realised that the figure inside the phone box was a man significantly older and fatter than Rosa’s ex-fiancé. She whirled around, pushing her phone safely into her back pocket out of habit, as she realised she’d been tricked. Eyes widening as she came face-to-face with Pimento, Gina couldn’t do anything as he raised a ragged piece of brick and brought it crashing into the side of her head.

Dazed, she stumbled into his arms, putting up no resistance as he half led, half carried her towards a transit van and pushed her into the back. The doors slammed behind her, plunging her into darkness and Gina wasted no time in trying the doors, only to find that they could only be opened from the outside. Fear filled her and she fumbled for her mobile. It flew from her hands as the engine roared and the van jolted forward.

“No, no, no…” Gina murmured desperately, scrabbling on the floor for the phone as the movement of the van threw her from side to side. She only just managed to snatch it up in time to answer Rosa’s incoming call. “Rosa? I… please help me.”

“What’s wrong? Where are you, Gina? What’s happened?” Rosa demanded at once, her voice panicked and desperate.

Gina bit her lip, fear washing over as she realised that she had no idea. “I don’t know…”

“What?”

Her eyes slipped closed as she thought about how stupid she’d been. “I had a call… it was Pimento. He wanted to talk and I… I thought I could handle him.”

“Gina… What the hell did he do to you?”

“Hit me with something… grabbed me… pushed me into a van…” She leant her head against the side of the van, willing her voice to stay steady as she battled to stop the tears that were burning in her eyes fall.

“OK, OK… I’m gonna find you, babe. I promise.”

“Hurry, please…”

“I will, Gina. I’ll be there before you know it. Keep your phone on you.”

As the motion of the van stopped abruptly and Gina heard a door slamming, she knew that Pimento would be coming for her any moment. Her breath caught in her throat as she considered the possible outcomes of the van doors opening. 

“I love you.”

Gina didn’t even hesitate before ending the call and shoving the phone into her pocket out of sight. She’d never told Rosa that she loved her, but she’d never thought she needed to. Rosa knew what she felt for her, just as she knew that Rosa loved her. It was in the looks she sent her, the comfortable silences that fell between them, the way she touched her. Gina knew that Rosa loved her and it was that thought that she held onto as the doors were thrown open and sunlight dazzled her.

“Out, Linetti.” 

“OK, so, where I’m from people actually use their words and construct them into sentences.” She started, jutting her chin defiantly. “I’m the Paris of People… I don’t respond to commands like a dog.”

“Out!” 

Pimento left her very little choice but to comply when he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the van. Gina practically fell on top of him, catching her foot on a length of rope that was lying along the floor. As he caught her, clamping both of her wrists behind her back with one of his hands, Pimento leant forward and grabbed the rope.

“What’s your plan then, big shot?” Gina asked, unable to stay quiet.

“Gonna keep you here, use you as bait for Rosa.”

She snorted, her eyes darting around for inspiration. They seemed to be in an industrial estate of some sort. There were piles of scrap metal, tyres and various items that looked as though they’d just been dumped there. None of the warehouses looked as though they were in regular use – if they were used at all – and Gina couldn’t hear anything. The hope she’d been harbouring that someone would come to her rescue died almost instantly.

Her next plan was to try and break free of his steel-like grip and make a run for it. A few experimental jerks of her arms told her that it was going to be difficult to evade his grip, but she waited until he was trying to unlock the heavy padlock on the shutter door of one of the warehouses, before pulling herself away and setting off at a run towards the road.

“No, no!” She shrieked as he caught her, grasping her around the waist and swinging her up over his shoulder. “No! Put me down you loser! Do not touch me! You not nearly hot enough to touch me! No!”

“Shut _up_ , Linetti.” Pimento growled, not the slightest bit affected by her escape attempt. “If you don’t, I’m gonna have to gag you and all I’ve got is my socks.”

Gina made a sound of complete disgust at the prospect of one of his dirty, sweaty socks anywhere near her – let alone in her mouth – and clamped her lips together. She quickly reassessed the situation and came up with Plan C. She would simply wait until she was left alone and then phone for help. Pimento didn’t seem to have remembered the existence of the device and for that Gina would be eternally grateful.

Once inside the warehouse, Pimento one-handedly dragged a chair into the middle of the floor and set Gina on it. Before she could move, he used the rope he’d brought in from the van to secure her tightly to it. Still, Gina didn’t panic. She could just about move her arms enough to reach into her pocket and grab hold of her phone as soon as she had the opportunity. 

For a while, Pimento just paced the floor, muttering to himself and occasionally smacking himself in the head. Gina watched with morbid fascination as he let out a high-pitched shriek and ran headlong into one of the pillars. Picking himself up, he put his head in his hands and dropped to a crouch.

Carefully, Gina felt in her pocket for her phone, pulling it out and unlocking it surreptitiously. With her thumb hovering over the call icon, she looked down for a split second. When she glanced up, Pimento was standing directly in front of her, looking thunderous.

“No!” He yelled, knocking the phone out of her hand.

Gina screamed as the device clattered to the concrete floor, her screen smashing on impact. “My baby! No! You have no idea what you’ve just done. I am going to _destroy_ you!”

Taking one look at the murderous expression on her face, Pimento surged forward and grasped her chin painfully hard. “No, you have no idea what _you’ve_ done. Rosa and I were happy until you got inside her head and messed with it.”

“Rosa and I were friends _long_ before you darkened our doorway, little man.” She held his gaze, refusing to flinch as his hands closed around her upper arms and he shook her roughly.

“We were getting married! We were getting married and then you ruined _everything_!”

“I ruined nothing, Pimento.” Gina replied with a smirk. “Because that’s what you and Rosa had. _Nothing_. She’s a ten and you’re barely a three. Rosa deserves so much better than you… some ridiculous loser who disappeared for days on end with no explanation.” She recoiled as he shouted out in fury, hitting her across the face as he lost control. Gina clenched her jaw, ignoring the pain as her eyes narrowed. “See… just another reason why you’ll _never_ be good enough for Rosa.”

With another animalistic cry, he pulled out a length of fabric and tied it around Gina’s eyes. Apparently for good measure, he struck her across the face again and this time she felt the metallic tang of blood in her mouth.

Then he was gone and she was left alone in the dark and the quiet. Every now and then a loud sound would break the silence and once or twice Gina was convinced that something had sped through the air, only narrowly missing her. She tried calling out to Pimento, demanding he tell her what was going on or, if as she suspected he was throwing things at her, telling him to knock it off.

Gina had no idea of how much time had passed before she heard footsteps crossing the floor towards her. Her heart leapt, thundering at an entirely implausible rate, as she hoped beyond hope that the footsteps belonged to the only person she wanted to see in that moment. Then she considered the likelihood of that being the case and flinched, terrified about what might be about to happen.

“Gina!” A very familiar voice broke the silence and Gina’s breath caught in her throat in disbelief. “Babe, it’s me. Oh my god, Gina. Are you OK? What the hell did he do to you?”

“Rosa?”

Hands were dragging at the ropes holding her tightly in place. Gina winced as her girlfriend only really succeeded in digging the binds into her flesh.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me…” Rosa gently tugged the blindfold away from her eyes and Gina was finally able to see. “Babe…”

She blinked a couple of times, suddenly plunged into daylight, before focusing on Rosa’s face. There were several conflicting emotions warring for dominance on the brunette’s face – fear, fury and guilt amongst other things. Gina wanted nothing more than to touch Rosa, to reassure her that she didn’t blame her, that none of this was her fault, but she still couldn’t move.

Sobs escaped from her without her permission and, once they’d started, Gina realised that she couldn’t stop them. Unable to reach up and wipe them away, she felt them trailing down her cheeks and dropping into her lap. There was a pause and then gentle hands were brushing across her cheekbones and warm, soft lips were pressed to hers for an agonisingly short moment.

“Shit, shit, shit…” Rosa chanted in a low voice, still attempting to free her.

“Rosa!” Terror surged up inside Gina as she spotted movement on the other side of the warehouse. Pimento was creeping towards them, determined anger etched into his features. “He’s…”

Her girlfriend smiled at her, sending her a wink when she continued to tremble with fear. “OK, babe… it’s OK. It’ll be OK.”

It was agonising, waiting for Pimento to reach them, not knowing what Rosa was planning or what would happen. Gina struggled uselessly against the ropes, desperate to be able to do something to help. She gasped as Rosa whirled around and confronted the man, sending him sprawling onto the concrete with blood pouring out of his nose.

Gina saw what was going to happen next, but found herself powerless to stop it. Rosa lurched forward, attempting to pull a knife out of Pimento’s belt. He was too quick, however, using both of their strengths against Rosa and overpowering her quickly.

“Rosa!” She was unable to stop herself crying out her girlfriend’s name.

Rosa glanced at her quickly, distracted by the sound, and Pimento managed to gain even more of an upper hand over her. Gina started screaming, fighting in vain against the ropes, as he wrapped his hands around Rosa’s neck, squeezing hard. They overbalanced, toppling together onto the concrete. Rosa fought against him, her hands scrabbling at him fruitlessly until she stopped moving. 

“No!” Gina screamed, her entire being cracking in two. “Rosa! No!” 

Suddenly all of the air seemed to have been sucked out of the building. Gina gasped, struggling to fill her lungs as Pimento stared down at Rosa, apparently in shock. Tears were coursing down her face now, coming thick and fast, as she thought about all the time they’d wasted, everything they’d miss out on.

Pimento straightened, turning and walking towards Gina. She shrank back in the chair, more terrified of his oddly expressionless face than she had been of the wild fury. Her eyes remained glued to his as he stood in front of her, running his thumb along the blade of his knife before glancing down at the bead of blood it had drawn. 

“If you’re going to kill me, just kill me, you coward.” She ground out in a flat tone, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of hearing her beg.

He considered her for a moment, before stepping closer. She let her eyes slip closed, not wanting to know when it happened. There was nothing for several beats – no movement, no pain – and then there were two thuds in quick succession. 


	17. Chapter 17

“Gina? Gi, open your eyes, babe.”

“No.” She replied stubbornly. “I’m clearly dead and you’re an angel. If I open my eyes I’m going to be faced with inarguable evidence to that end and that is something I’m just not ready for.” 

“Gina, you’re not dead.” Rosa sounded impatient, but she was obviously holding back the full force of her exasperation in view of the situation. 

“Of course angel-Rosa would say that. God probably doesn't want me to freak out because She’s such a big fan of my pre-death work and She’s worried I’ll lose my edge.” Gina argued. “If She wants me to dance for her, I’ve got conditions.”

“We really haven’t got time for you to have a complete narcissistic breakdown right now, Gi.” Rosa’s tone was laced with impatience and fear. There was also something else that Gina couldn’t place. “We need to move.”

At that, Gina cracked one eye open and looked at her girlfriend. Judging from the bruising already forming around Rosa’s neck, she definitely wasn’t dead. Gina knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that angel-Rosa’s appearance would be just as flawless as non-injured-Rosa was.

“Stop staring at me, dude.” Rosa ordered, slicing through the ropes with Pimento’s knife. “I don’t know how long he’s gonna be unconscious. We’ve gotta get out of here.”

Taking hold of Gina’s hand firmly, the brunette started tugging her in the direction of the door. Pulling against her for a moment, Gina scooped up her mobile, staring forlornly at the screen. Rosa glanced at it for a moment, hearing the quiet whimper her girlfriend let out at the sight of the shattered screen.

“I’ll get it fixed or buy you a new one or whatever.” Rosa promised, tugging on her hand again. “Come on!”

Nodding, Gina allowed herself to be dragged across the space in the direction her girlfriend was heading. She shot a nervous glance at the prone form of their attacker on the ground, wondering how Rosa had actually managed to take him down. A surge of pride ran through her as she glanced at the determined expression on the taller woman’s face as she yanked on the door handle.

They tried the door together, both of them banging and kicking at it to no avail. Glancing over her shoulder, Gina realised that Pimento was no longer lying on the ground and tugged on Rosa’s arm urgently. She instinctively tightened her grip on her girlfriend, fear flooding through her once more.

“Wha–?” She started, following her gaze. “Shit…”

Rosa placed herself between Gina and the main part of the room, desperately trying to shield her from any danger. There was no sign of the man anywhere, but the warehouse was huge and filled with shadowy corners and places to hide. Knowing that they needed to find one of those places for themselves, Rosa placed her index finger on her lips and led Gina along the wall.

With her eyes darting around the room constantly, Rosa ushered her girlfriend towards a wall of crates in the back corner. She hurriedly checked that it was devoid of murderous psychopaths before pushing Gina into the gap and blocking her from view with her own body. She could feel the shorter woman’s heart thundering in her chest, her hand encased painfully tightly in Rosa’s own.

“What do we do?” Gina whispered finally.

“We wait it out.” Rosa replied. “The police know where we are… they’ll be here soon.”

“What if…?” 

“No, no.” Rosa shook her head, ducking her head slightly to meet Gina’s eyes. “No what ifs. We’re gonna be fine. If the cops don’t find us, Terry and Jake will.” 

“Terry and _Jake_?”

“Yeah… I panicked. Terry’s muscles can’t just be for show. I asked him to help me find you.” Rosa told her with a shrug, trying to look casual and failing miserably. She blinked a couple of times, pressing one hand to her head for a moment, before straightening again. “Then he decided that Jake and the cops needed to be involved and it became a whole thing.”

“Wait… _you_ didn’t call the police?”

“I did… after Terry told me to.”

“Rosa?” 

“I wasn’t thinking clearly, OK? I just wanted to get to you. I didn’t think much past that.” 

“Oh, baby!” Gina leant into her, pressing her lips to Rosa’s. “ _That_ is the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me. Running headfirst into a situation where the outcome is probably death is so fitting.” 

Rosa rolled her eyes, ignoring the blush that had risen to her cheeks. “Shut up, Gi.”

“No, seriously, Rosie, I–” Gina stopped abruptly, looking down at the hand that had been sliding around her girlfriend’s waist. “Rosa? What the _hell_?”

“It’s nothing.” Her girlfriend shot back immediately. “Just a scratch.”

“That is _not_ nothing, Rosa.” Gina argued, slapping her hand away and trying to get a look at her side.

It was too dark to see properly, but she could tell that it was serious. Rosa must be in a lot of pain and the knowledge that it was because of her caused a sharp pain to grip Gina’s heart. Gently, she ran her fingers lightly over the affected area to get some idea of what they were dealing with. There was a lot of blood, judging from the wet, stickiness Gina could feel on Rosa’s shirt and stomach and she hissed involuntarily as her girlfriend’s fingertips ghosted across her skin.

“Rosa…” Gina gasped, her eyes wide and fearful. “You need to get to hospital.” 

“I’m fine.” Rosa ground out. “He just nicked me with his dumb knife when he landed on me, that’s all.”

“It’s not fine.” Her girlfriend replied, suddenly furious. “Nothing about this is _fine_. Stop being so tough all the time!”

“Gina, shhh!” Rosa clamped a hand over her mouth, her eyes widening as she heard a clanking sound from somewhere behind them. “Babe, just be… quiet… for one…” As she trailed off, one hand reaching behind her and scrabbling desperately at the crates in an attempt to stay upright, Rosa shook her head at Gina. “Just dizzy. My phone’s in my pocket… text Terry. Tell him… we need help.”

Hearing her girlfriend say those words almost sent the nearly unflappable Gina Linetti into a full-blown panic. Rosa admitting that she needed help was unheard of. Reaching out gingerly, Gina laid her hand on Rosa’s pale, clammy forehead for a moment, before cupping her cheek and then pressing her hand on the Latina’s chest directly over her heart. It was beating rapidly; something Gina didn’t think had anything to do with fear. 

She helped Rosa to sit in the cramped space, before unlocking her phone and finding the text thread with Terry. She hastily typed out a message, stressing how important it was they came quickly. Sliding down beside her girlfriend, she removed her jumper and wrapped one arm around Rosa while pressing the balled up sweater against where she thought the cut was.

Desperately trying to remember any basic first aid, Gina cursed herself for not paying attention during Holt’s staff training sessions. She’d been far too busy making comments in an attempt to make Rosa smile. Now, though, she wished she had actually listened. She vaguely remembered something about lying the patient down and elevating the feet, so she carefully manoeuvred them into a more suitable position.

“I feel so helpless.” She whispered, leaning over and resting her forehead against Rosa’s. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“S’OK, Gi.” Rosa sighed drowsily. “I love you, too, by the way…”

“You pick your moments, don’t you Rosie? Everyone thinks I’m the extra one around here but you literally waited until–” She broke off, having been about to say Rosa had waited until she was about to die. “You waited until the most dramatic moment you could think of to tell me you love me.”

“Had to get it in before… before I couldn’t…”

“Don’t be a dummy. You’ll have plenty of chances to tell me. And I expect you to remind me _at least_ ten times a day how amazing I am and how lucky you are to have me.”

“Be a bit difficult if I’m dead.”

“Quit being a baby.” Gina ordered, her voice cracking with emotion. “You’re not going to die just to get out of facing our friends after they find out about us. Nice try, Diaz.” 

“Sorry… too sleepy…” 

“No, no, no… Rosa, you’ve gotta stay with me, honey.” The auburn-haired woman panicked as her eyes closed and her head lolled slightly to one side. “Come on, Ro, talk to me. Who d’you reckon is gonna make the most fuss about the city’s hottest couple? Amy or Charles?”

“Jake…”

“Ah, yes.” Gina nodded thoughtfully. “He’s going to hate it that we didn’t tell him. In fact, he’ll probably be a real baby about it.”

When Rosa only made a muffled murmuring sound in response, Gina started to panic and turned her attention back to Rosa’s mobile. There was a message from Terry telling her that they were outside with the police, but they were waiting for a firearms team before coming in. She felt like crying again, but a quick glance at her now unconscious girlfriend steeled her and she typed back a short, sharp text that successfully conveyed her anger at the delay.

When they looked back on the events, Gina would swear to anyone who was willing to listen – and those who weren’t – that it was her message that had forced the police to act. All of a sudden, with no warning, there was a great deal of noise and several gun shots. Gina shrank back against the wall of crates, clutching Rosa to her and willing it to be over as soon as possible.

Then there were people, paramedics and police and then Terry, who gathered her into a tight, bone-crushing hug and then scooped her into his arms and carried her, bridal-style, out into the sunshine. Gina struggled against him, desperate to get back to Rosa, only to be told that the medical professionals were working on her and she could see her once she’d been checked over as well.

“Gina…” Jake breathed and she fell into his arms, finally giving in again and sobbing into his chest.

“She… Rosa saved me…” She told him between sobs. “I can’t lose her, Jake… we took so long… I can’t…”

“She’ll be fine, Gina. Rosa’s a fighter. She won’t give up, not when she knows you’re waiting for her.”

Jake stayed with her as the paramedics ushered Gina into the back of an ambulance and drove her to hospital. He did his best to prevent her physically attacking anyone who wouldn’t tell her about Rosa’s condition, patiently explaining that they wouldn’t know properly until a doctor examined her. It wasn’t enough for Gina, however, and she continued to bombard anyone official-looking who came near her with questions.

Finally, after what felt like hours, a doctor came looking for Gina. She was talking quietly to her mother on the phone, assuring Darlene that she didn’t need to come to the hospital. She was more of an emotional wreck than her daughter was, causing Gina to roll her eyes slightly and tell her to stop overreacting. Jake thought it was a bit rich, coming from the woman who had told numerous people – including several school inspectors – that she was the Paris of People, but read the situation correctly and said nothing.

“Ms Linetti? I’m Doctor Heath.” When she nodded, handing the phone to Jake unceremoniously, he sat on the hard plastic seat beside her. “You’re Ms Diaz’s next of kin?” 

“I…”

He frowned lightly at her hesitation, looking down at the paperwork in front of him. “According to this you are, anyway.”

Gina’s heart clenched in her chest and she nodded wordlessly, wondering when Rosa had changed her details. “How is she? Can I see her?”

“Ms Diaz lost a significant amount of blood and was suffering from hypovolemic shock when she was brought in.” The doctor informed her gently. “Luckily the blade didn’t hit any organs and there was no internal bleeding, which makes things much more straight forward treatment-wise. We’ve taken blood and tested for organ functions just to be safe, as well as doing both a CT and ultrasound.”

“And Rosa’s OK?”

“She will be.” Doctor Heath agreed with a nod. “We’re currently intravenously replenishing lost blood and fluids to stabilise her condition and improve circulation. Ms Diaz was very lucky.”

Gina didn’t think she’d been particularly lucky at all – lucky would have been avoiding the situation entirely – but she didn’t argue. “Can I see her?”

“I think the police want to speak to you both first.” Doctor Heath told her gently. “Have you been examined?” 

“They looked at me on the way here.” She waved away his concern. “Is Rosa awake?”

“Not yet, but we don’t think it’ll be much longer now we’ve got her on the drip.” He said lightly, still eyeing her eyebrow carefully. “I think that cut needs stitches, Ms Linetti.”

“It’s fine.” 

“Gina.” Jake placed a calming hand on her forearm. “Go and get the stitches and I’ll wait here for Rosa. It’ll take like two minutes.” 

She sighed deeply. “Whatever.”

Allowing herself to be led away by Doctor Heath, Gina huffed loudly as two police officers approached her, but allowed them to ask her about the events of the day. She thought most of their questions were pointless because her recount of what had happened was clearly incredibly self-explanatory and so she made her feelings very clear. Before demanding to be allowed to see Rosa, Gina suddenly realised she had no idea what had happened to Pimento.

“I’m afraid the suspect refused to give up his firearm after several warnings and, as a result, was shot by armed officers.” The young PC told her.

Gina hadn’t known he had a gun. She bit her lip. “Where was he when…?” The PC exchanged a look with his colleague, who shook her head sharply. “Tell me.”

“Mr Pimento was taken down less than five feet away from where we found you and Ms Diaz.” He told her gently. “When we entered the warehouse he was heading towards your location.”

“So… if you hadn’t come in when you did…?” Gina’s mind went into overtime as she considered how close to the wire it had all been in the end. “I see…”

He bowed his head slightly, smiling at her gently. “We’ll be in touch in the next day or so to get you to look over and sign your statement.”

Gina nodded slowly, her mind turning over the new information she’d been given. She barely noticed as the doctor stitched the cut on her eyebrow and cleaned the one on her lip. When he led her back towards Rosa’s room, she hesitated for a moment; suddenly afraid of what she might see when she went inside.

“D’you want me to come with you?” Jake offered gently.

She shook her head. “No… I want to do this on my own. You can come in after, I promise, I just…”

He nodded. “I understand, Gina.”

Smiling weakly at him, she pushed through the door and approached the bed. Gina took a long, stuttering breath in as she eyed the machinery around her girlfriend suspiciously. Rosa’s eyes were closed, her face paler than normal against the dark curls that framed it. Tears sprang to Gina’s eyes as she looked at her, her eyes dropping to the cannulas in the back of both hands, one hooked up to a bag of blood, the other to a bag of clear liquid.

“Are you coming over here or what?” Rosa asked suddenly, making Gina jump.

“I hate you so much!” She snapped, striding towards the bed and slapping Rosa lightly on the shoulder. “You’re such a jerk! Why the fuck didn’t you fucking tell me fucking Pimento had fucking stabbed you?” 

“I’m literally in a hospital bed and you’re hitting me?” 

Gina scowled. “You didn’t get stabbed in the shoulder, did you?”

Rosa stared back at her, burning tears welling up in her eyes as they looked at each other. As she broke into anguished sobs, Gina covered Rosa’s entire face with kisses, not caring that their tears were mingling until she finally pulled away and wiped gently at her cheeks to remove the tear stained tracks. 

She met her girlfriend’s eyes again and they both started laughing. It was ridiculous and totally inappropriate considering what they’d been through, but both women immediately felt better at the release.

“I’ve never been so scared in my entire life, Ro.” Gina admitted when they’d calmed down and she’d wiggled her way onto the bed beside her girlfriend. “I thought you were going to die on me and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. What if I’d lost you, Rosa? What would I have done?” 

“You’d have got on with your life.” Rosa told her gently. Seeing that she was about to argue, Rosa shook her head, squeezing their conjoined hands. “No, Gina, you would have. You’re fucking strong and you’ve got Enigma to think about. You’d have picked yourself up and carried on. If I had to give my life to save anyone, it would have been you. Every time. I would rather _die_ than let anything happen to you.”

“God, why do you have to be so perfect?” Gina complained, her tone completely devoid of its usual bite. 

“No, not perfect.” Rosa shook her head. “Realistic.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The penultimate chapter! Thank you so much for sticking with this; I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> :)


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter! Thank you so much for sticking with this :)

It was only a week before Rosa was discharged from hospital and Gina was waiting to take her home. Rosa had been visited by all of their colleagues and, to their credit, none of them had said anything about them hiding their relationship from everyone. She would never have thought she’d have enjoyed seeing them as much as she did, but every time visiting time rolled around and there was someone from work there to see her, Rosa had had to force herself not to beam brightly. 

Gina was in her room at every single opportunity and sometimes even when she wasn’t supposed to be there. Rosa was grateful that her girlfriend had absolutely no regard for rules or authority and barely batted an eyelid when Gina waltzed onto the ward in the middle of the morning rounds, a good five hours before visiting started. No one dared to make any mention of her presence after she reduced a young nurse to tears for questioning why she was there.

The visitors Rosa could have done without were her parents. She was grateful that they had made the effort to come and see her, but the hours they spent at her bedside were awkward and filled with long, uncomfortable silences. Rosa knew that they loved her, but she would much rather have not been forced to sit and witness them looking suspiciously at Gina, who chattered on as though everything was fine. She appreciated how hard her girlfriend was trying and was immensely frustrated by her parents’ behaviour. Her sisters, who had immediately taken a liking to Gina, assured her that their parents were trying and it wouldn’t be long before things were back to normal. Rosa wasn’t so sure, but she simply smiled tightly and nodded.

The whole truth about that day had been hidden from Rosa while she’d been recovering. She knew that Pimento was dead, but she didn’t know how close the whole thing had been. The afternoon she went home, Gina sat her down and gently explained things to her. She showed her several newspaper cuttings and a news report she’d recorded from the TV, snorting with amusement at Rosa’s objections to the photo she’d given them to flesh out the footage. It was one of Rosa on the beach on their holiday, beaming at Enigma as they paddled in the sea. When Rosa complained about her reputation being shattered, Gina cheerfully pointed out that if she’d used any photos the brunette would have approved of, people wouldn’t have known if she was the victim or the criminal.

“So… Rosa broke up with Pimento and he tried to kill you both in a warehouse like something off a thriller movie.” Amy said, more casually than she clearly felt, judging by the way she was clutching her glass. “What can we expect if you two break up?”

“We’re not going to break up, Amy.” Gina informed her, rolling her eyes. “I have too much on her.” 

Rosa rolled her eyes. “No, that’s _not_ the reason we won’t break up.”

“No,” the other woman conceded with a shrug, squeezing her girlfriend’s hand, “but if we did, we’d have to pull out all the stops. A bar has been set and Gina Linetti will not be outdone.”

“So you’ll try and kill me?”

“I won’t _try_.” Gina replied casually. “I’ll succeed, as I succeed in everything.”

“Great, babe.” Rosa chuckled. “Good to know.”

Charles, sitting on the floor after giving up his seat to Holt when everyone arrived to see Rosa, made a high-pitched noise of complete and utter delight. Both women had already told him to stop being weird several times, but secretly they were touched by how happy he was about their relationship. Gina rolled her eyes at him, before ordering him to go and check that Arlo hadn’t mistaken Nikolaj for a dog treat and eaten him.

A wail from upstairs told them that Enigma had woken up from her nap and Rosa held up a hand, stopping her girlfriend from standing and going to see to her daughter. Instead, Rosa slipped from the room and returned a couple of moments later with the toddler running ahead of her into the room.

She stopped abruptly at the sight of so many people in the living room, before turning and burying her face into Rosa’s legs. Without thinking, the Latina swung her up onto her injury-free hip and placed one finger under the little’s girl’s chin to force her to meet her eyes.

“You’re not shy, right, Iggy?” She asked softly. “You remember Uncle Jake and Aunty Amy? And Terry and Mr Holt?”

“She may address me as Raymond.” Holt piped up, clearing his throat. “Mr Holt seems a little formal for a nineteen-month-old.”

“Mommy? Where Arlo?” Enigma asked, completely ignoring everyone else in the room and peering at Gina, before turning back to Rosa. “Mama, where Arlo?”

“Arlo’s outside with Nikolaj and Uncle Charles.” Rosa informed her, placing her down on the ground and directing her towards the back door. “Go and find them.”

“Mama?” Jake asked as Enigma ran off in search of her dog. He broke into a delighted grin, apparently deciding that he could hold this one against her for a while. “Seriously? You answer to _Mama_?” 

“Gina’s fault.” Rosa muttered, suddenly self-conscious. “She taught Iggy to call me it as a joke and now she won’t stop.”

“Hey!” Gina slapped at her leg as Rosa folded herself into the armchair she was perching on. “It wasn’t a joke. And you love it, Rosa Diaz, you’re not fooling anyone with this hardass routine.”

“Yeah…” Terry shrugged, “I still find you completely terrifying.”

“Good.” Rosa growled, frowning at her girlfriend even as Gina squeezed her thigh lightly.

“So… where are you thinking of sending Enigma to school?” Amy asked, biting her lip and screwing up her face a little. “I’ve heard Meadow Vale Primary has a fantastic reputation.”

“Why? Don’t you think you can handle a child raised by Gina Linetti and Rosa Diaz?” Gina challenged with a smirk. “I don’t blame you. She will be one exquisite example of a human being.” 

“And she’ll be able to kick everyone’s ass.” Rosa added with a decisive nod. “Those little jerks will think twice before picking on her.”

Amy paled even more. Apparently the thought of a four-year-old with Gina’s sass and ingenuity and Rosa’s inability to take crap from anyone was too much for her to be able to imagine. The two women smirked at each other, guessing what was running through her head. 

“The most important question, which I don’t believe has been asked yet, is this…” Holt began, his calm tones ringing clearly through the room. “Are you both happy?” 

Rosa glanced at Gina, seeing the love she felt for the woman reflected back at her tenfold. “Yeah… couldn’t be happier.”


End file.
